Two Shades of White
by thebittermuse
Summary: The life of a young hacker is interupted from it's day to day course by rebels of the Matrix, and then thrown into discourse by the twins, who have their own agenda.
1. Chapter 1

Title/A New Shade of White

Author/Lelio, 18, girl.

Regulations/I do not own characters of THE MATRIX.

Inspiration/ I was under the influence of a bunch of different types of music while writing this. Not sure if it'll be evident, but it happened. A few of the bands/soundtracks I listened to; Placebo, Silent Hill OST, nine inch nails, deftones, sneakerpimps, orbital, vnv nation, dj shadow, kidney thieves.

---

Within the cold and steely heart of Central City, members of the crew of the Melpomene were slinking through the streets, it was their turn to scout new rebels out. Lute was one of those few who were searching. The smell of old streets after a good downpour of rain burned her nostrils as she waited outside an apartment complex. As she had been disconnected from the Matrix for the shortest period of time compared to the rest of the crew, she was only set with the easiest, and dullest jobs. Though it had been nearly five years since then, and she was now nineteen, easily just as skilled, if not more so as the rest of the crew. Above her, near the top of the building, a window opened and someone whistled shrilly at her as she watched the progress of a shiney beatle scuttle near her shoe. It had been fascinating for the nearly thirty seconds it took to skitter the foot it had covered in that time. Yet when Dice reached his head out to signal it was time, Lute snapped her head up to look at her caller and quickly crossed the sidewalk to the sleek, old-fashioned black car they had brought, leaving behind the equally old-fashioned wrought-iron fence she had been leaning against that caged in the meager garden set about the brick building.

Sliding into the cold leather seat, Lute reached for her seatbelt, but was rocketed from the drivers seat before she was clasped in . A pale hand had reached in and grabbed her in a vice-like grip and propelled her from the car like a doll. She flew over the fence and landed in the line of small bushes. Back on her feet in seconds, she glared at one of two powder white men. They were both standing close to each other, but one was heading off towards the door of the apartment. It was amazing these two could run about in public without accumulating little circles of gawkers.

--

Yossi had quickly made it past the basic defenses of her client's insurence company. Being paid an unqestionable ammount of money for this job had given her plenty of incentive. She did these types of jobs with a high level of numbness. She'd lost early morals, but always played on the good side of society otherwise. Without the restraint of good versus bad in her head she could make money easily and supply her life. Only a year ago she had erased all evidence of her existence on all types of files in computers everywhere. Several unfortunate events led her to this and she was indeed lucky that she was as independent as she was. Only clocking twelve years, and infinatly wise in all things hard and software, she had leveled out an easy enough life. Only the best equipment was stocked in her small apartment that once belonged to her aunt, who died a year ago in the same accident that her parents had perished in. It didn't take long to settle into an easy life with plenty of clients and sorts of people believing she was of age. She only lived for her computer and found that healthy enough, though she often forgot to eat, sleep, and bathe, always staring into the glowing screen of one of her many computers.

She was in fairly poor condition, a tad smelly and underweight when her screen flashed a shade of pale silver. She blinked at the sudden brightness, squinting into the light. Her computers were well protected, healthy compared to the many leisure devices normal families owned. They were elite. So when, even the ones who were shut down, flashed silver screens, she was indeed perplexed. Even more so when the one she had been using to hack the insurance companies base began typing the name, "Yossi" over and over again till the large screen was completed. This was the name she used with clients, and on her computers. All were named that, so when the option to shut down a computer came up, it said "Shut Down Yossi". She glared steadily at it and reached over to shut the device down when the screen returned to normal before she could reach the little button. Her mind was immediatly racing with culprits who could have sent a virus into her computer, and their immenant punishment when they were caught. But no faces came to light. Other hackers that were even in her league were all at a truce after they ended up shutting down five major city power sources in a bitter hack-war. Only two were carted away to face unhealthy sentences in prison. She was one of the lucky eleven that had escaped unscathed from that mess.

Deciding now was the perfect time to clean herself up, she pushed her leisure chair away from the desk and stopped dead in her tracks. Someone was knocking on her door. She couldn't see the front door of her pathetically small apartment. It was peeling with cheap beige paint. Noone ever came calling at her door, not even the owner of the building. No pizzaguy ever stood at her door, no salesmen. She was dead to the world except under the identy of twentyseven year old "Lisa Jones", a person she made up in order to own this apartment, the computers and the likes. She walked from the computer room and now could see the front door. Her small eyebrows knitted together, creasing the delicate skin between them as she approached the door apprehensively, slowly. The peephole was too far up the door to see, she'd never used it before. Carefully, tentatively, intending to press her ear to the door, she approached. Before she could, however, a voice iminated from the other side, passing easily through the thin wood of the door.

"Yossi," it said, not asked, with a strong, calm and oh so reasonable tone.

She gasped and jumped back like she'd just touched the top of the hot stove, but the door wasn't burning and her heart was still hammering in her chest.

"Open the door, Yossi," this was the voice of a psychologist, something she probably should have talked to before she erased her name from the hundreds of databases.

And she did, she grasped the handle and turned before she knew what she was doing, but what choice did she have? That voice on the other side of the door was promising her something, freedom. She knew this, always. She knew this when she'd turn on her computer, when she walked around her empty apartment, alone. She knew the world was at odds with her. And she was so close to understanding, everyday. Something was wrong, something was different. She'd told herself at first that this was what happened when you lost parents. She had never been close to them, but she wasn't completely apathetic. And now, the answers were close, on the other side of the door, weren't they?

The door swung with a painful moan, fully open like she had excepted whatever it was the person on the other side of the door had to offer. The face was kind, yet stern. Young, yet wise. His sunglasses, though, she wanted to remove them. She was certain there'd be perfect eyes to fit with his accepting face. He didn't smile, but it wasn't a mean, or agressive look. It was almost expressionless, but it didn't have the hushed silence that presidential bodyguards had. She blinked, in awe. The man wasn't alone, however, he had two women and a younger man with him. He looked the oldest out of them, though none were younger than twenty..or twentyfive. All were wearing different styles of sunglasses and this annoyed her somewhat. They were in a building, a dim one at that. Today was to be cloudy, a chance of rain if she remembered reading the webpage weather-ticker right. It was strange this had distracted her, the guests had already entered and the man named Dice was steering her towards her mangy couch.

"Do you know who I am?" he was sitting on the couch beside her. She should have been more cautious, something should have been telling her these were strangers, but nothing was clicking in her mind, nothing seemed dangerous.

"Yes," Yossi nodded numbly. She was feeling almost euphoric, this was an important part of her short life, wasn't it?

The man didn't seem surprised, but smiled warmly and introduced himself as Dice. Then the oddest story she had ever heard spilled out of him like gushing water. He was talking quickly, he must have been in a rush. Before she could fully comprehend what we was saying about the real world and the digital world, the story was complete. She was blinking owlishly, starring down at the blue carpet, stained and worn, and only comfortable to stand on in certain parts. One of the women was occupying a particularly uncomfortable part, but she was wearing shoes with the thickest heels Yossi had ever seen, she'd never know.

Dice stood, looking accomplished yet suddenly weary. He walked over to the living rooms largest window and slid it open with some difficulty. The old window had never been opened and resisted brusquely. He whistled loudly and sharply at whoever was down on the ground and turned around, leaving the window open.

"We're going to take you to a place that will make this all seem more clear, Yossi, alright?"

Yossi was still a little dazed. She suspected that if they did this often, her case must have been the easiest because she had no one that would miss her. Only her clients, but that wasn't something she cared about much. She nodded placidly and let the youngest member of their group, the guy who she placed evenly at twenty six, steer how out the door. She wanted to lock it, to protect the computers in there from any sticky fingers, but she had the nagging feeling that she wouldn't be returning. She realized then that she'd probably miss those computers. They were like her special works of art, they even had her name in them, like a fancy signature.

---

Lute only seemed to be dodging his blade and jumping away from his heavy boots. The dreadlocked, ivory program was frighteningly swift. He would have been a match for the Agents if he wasn't part of the Matrix like them. She'd been guarding the door of the ratty apartment building for almost a minute, though time was becoming agonizingly slow. She knew Dice and the others would be down soon. The other twin seemed to be waiting for his brother to finish, but Lute was proving more of a challenge. She knew if he entered the fray, she might as well have stepped aside and let them march through.

"DICE!" she shrieked loudly as she saw the other twin dive for her, a pure white fist aimed for her cheek, but she flipped away, no hands and blocked the other brothers kick by grabbing his ankle after she landed neatly and prepared, taking the chance to trip him with a foot. The twin heading for the door didn't even bother with the handle, but turned into a ghostly version of himself. The Matrix's code was revealed in his form as his hair flew about. He resembled Medusa with her knotts of snakes for hair. He stepped through the door and disappeared. Lute's eyes went wide behind her sunglasses, but his brother was on his feet again, landing a heavy boot in her stomach.

---

Yossi's room was three floors up and the cheap owner of the apartment never had elevators installed. The complex was in horrible need of renovations. They were almost to the ground floor, Yossi had been nestled in the midst of them, the younger guy and a women behind, and Dice and the other woman in front. The warm sense of safety was slipping away as she felt their tension. They were intensly worried about something, but she never felt like asking, since her mind was still processing the story Dice had told her earlier. A war, machines, Zion and the computer program of the Matrix. All of it seemed familiar, like it had been a long ago bedtime story a mother had used to help her drift to sleep.

She had always been an alert girl. Also in tune with her surroundings, so even when she had immersed herself deep in thought, she didn't bump into the smooth leather-clad back of the woman leading her down the stairs. Everyone looked down over the dirty wooden railing at the entrance of the apartment. The double doors were right there, they could leave now, but the oddest person Yossi had ever seen was blocking the way. The entrance room of the apartment was big and sparcely decorated. The wide stairs twisted around to face the doors straight on, and right now, everyone was looking sideways over the railing and into the pale white face of an equally pallid clad man. One side of his mouth was turned upwards as he gave a dangerous smirk. He, too, was wearing sunglasses, but Yossi had the creeping sensation that he was watching her behind them. It wasn't difficult to tell he was on the 'machines' side.

The door of the apartment building, out of the corner of Yossi's eyes, caught her attention. Yossi thought this was out of place. With the quiet staredown between the people she was with and the ivory man on the bottom floor going on, it seemed like anybody that walked in would find this odd, maybe even run screaming of fright. But the situation was raised to another level of strange when an identical man stepped in, never bothering to open or close the large entrance doors. He just stepped right in. The young man behind her sucked in a breath, Yossi heard him whisper an urgent "no", and the moment seemed to freeze.

But then, everything went crazy. Everyone she was with lept over the railing, the youngest even went so far as to grip the banister and flip over it. She felt very alone, then, yet was distracted when each of them began engaging the twins into a heated battle. Her eyes widened and she sank to sit on the step, feeling small and never blinked once as she watched, mesmerized. The fight didn't last long, however. The twins kept phasing, ghostly, white, ghostly, white. Then, while slipping past a particularly brutal punch that Dice was aiming at his gut, one of the twins leapt onto the banister, landing cat-like and steady where Yossi was sitting. He had to grip the wood to stay in place as he looked down at her, smirking smugly. His brother was in his specter form, no one was trying to attack him, but running for Yossi and the ivory program. The other wouldn't have this, and was in front of them all with a retractible razor.

All of them pulled out their respective guns at this and aimed. Two at the twin in front of them, the others were steadily pointed at the one on the banister. He'd looked over his shoulder when he heard the running stop, still smirking, he slowly slid from the banister and wrapped his arms around Yossi's stomach and pulled her to stand in front of him. She sucked in a breath, the whites of her eyes were circling her pupils. Shouldn't she have ran? Not sure, but she certainly stopped breathing.

No one dropped their guns, Yossi thought the ones that were pointing in her direction should have wavered a little, but they seemed sure of themselves. Yossi, however, couldn't help but feel nervous standing at the receiving end of the barrels.

---

End note/Everyone enjoys reviews, I'll even take the critique head on. (meow)


	2. Chapter 2

beginning note/Still haven't bought the rights to the Matrix, but i'm determined.

/Hm, much longer this time, is that good?

---

Was it odd that there was a cold breeze whispering upon the back of her neck? Was she imagining it running down her spine like a cold trickle of water? Yossi still couldn't breathe, but her heart was hammering belligerently in her head, pounding on her eardrums. She wasn't sweating, however. She felt cold, too cold to be comfortable. But who would be comfortable in her situation anyways? A white hand had slithered just below her chin, just in the bottom field of her vision. It was stark white and impossible to miss against her loose black shirt. However her eyes hadn't moved from the sharp black barrels pointed at her. Truly they were aiming for the white man behind her, but they would have to go through her to get to the bad guy. One of the women behind the trigger pulled the hammer back. The noise was sharp, and unless Yossi was imagining it, it echoed loudly in the quiet room. This reminded her of something, she needed to breathe. Her chest was rising rapidly, up and down, too fast. Was she hyperventilating? The noise of the rushing air was too loud, much louder than the click of the hammer. Why wasn't anyone talking? What happened to negotiations? The white arm tightened around her upper chest, if it was any higher, he might have been choking her.

"Are you doing the agents work now?" finally someone broke the silence, it wasn't Dice, like she had expected, but one of the women, the tallest, it seemed, wearing a sleek, shiney coat that reached a little past her hips. Yossi wasn't able to see, but the twin behind her had smirked and pulled her closer to him. Dice's expression grew even more angry, if he barred his teeth he might be sneering. Yossi noticed that her mouth was full of saliva and swallowed loudly, then continued hyperventilating. Would it help if she closed her eyes? People always said to close your eyes when expecting pain, or something horrible. She thought this counted, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, it didn't seem safe and she desperatly wanted to see what the twin behind her was doing. He flicked out a razor, right by her ear so that she heard the metallic shink. She hardly flinched, but her eyes certainly widened even more. The room was filled with the clicking sound of hammers being pulled back. Instinct was to take a step back, but there was no safety behind her. Instead, she was slowly being pulled down the staircase. One step, then the next, slowly, carefully, sideways and awkward..

"Where do you think you're going?" Dice growled slowly and was inching towards the end of the staircase. The other twin, brandishing his razor, phased and dashed through them, turned and slashed the razor against the back of the youngest mans neck while they were into the process of following Yossi and his brother and turning to protect themselves. Chaos insued as everyone turned in every direction, apparently torn between watching Yossi slowly being kidnapped and protecting themselves from the attacking ghost. The guy fell to his knees, turned and shot too late in the phased twins abdomen. He sneered and phased through one of the women, but didn't turn to slash. Everyone was pointing guns everywhere and Dice was having trouble keeping his eyes on Yossi and the other twin.

Yossi brought her hands up slowly to grip the white hand that now cupped her neck just below her chin. She unconsciencly raised her head to try and escape the cold hand, but he tightened his grasp and she was defeated and dropped her hands. But she was diligent. The Twin glared down at her form in annoyence. She had stopped moving, not thinking if it was smart. With the battle below them, where the apparent good guys were going nowhere, she figured they didn't have the time to notice their escape. It seemed that the young man who had been cut had enough of the useless battle and shot several rounds into the ghostly twin, but to no avail. The twin behind her chuckled lowly, too quietly to be heard by any ears but her own, despite his annoyence with his captives resistance. Yossi grimaced, not enjoying being on the losing side. She was surprised however, when the twin behind her wrapped a white clad arm around her waist and hoisted her up, covering the rest of the stairs in an untraditional way. He lept, with her dangling at his side, and landed neatly, but loudly. Puffs of stale gray dust rose around his feet, but he still didn't let go. Smart of him, because she had been planning more ways to slow the escape. Dice turned, the twin who had been distracting them was busy with the rest of his crew, and pointed the gun squarely at Yossi's twin's head. She sucked in a breath, hoping that he had good aim. The twin stood perfectly still.

The small moment that they had been standing there, Yossi in the frigid grip of the twin, hoisted at least a foot off the ground, was broken suddenly. A painful, wet howl erupted from behind Dice. The sound seemed to be coming from below water, and this confused Yossi more than ever. She couldn't see what the cause was, however, because Dice was in the way. He wouldn't move, however, but Yossi could see it in his eyes. His expression, as stoic as it was, seemed to be inexplicably saddened. His gun never wavered from the twins head, and his grip on the trigger tightened, and then pulled. The shot went wide however, the twin behind Yossi didn't even phase. Dice's eyes widened painfully, the whites seemed so pure. Dice twisted around, in the middle of falling, and tried to aim, but it didn't work, and Yossi finally got a good look at the scene he had been blocking. The phased twin that had been causing such havok, was grinning broadly as his hair and clothes flew wildly around in some nonexistant wind. He was in the stance of someone who had just thrown something. Yossi's eyes were seaching the two people standing behind him. They were in shock, and pointing their guns at the phased twin, hoping he'd forget and return to normal. Yossi found this odd, however, wasn't there someone else that was supposed to be there? Her gaze flicked to the ground. The youngest member of Dice's crew lay crumpled in a bloody heap. His face was hidden, but it was obvious the source of the of the dark blood was from a wound in his neck. It must have been deep, because blood had coated everything, even on the girls. Noone seemed willing to touch him. So much blood. Yossi swallowed another mouthful of spit, and dropped her gaze, but now she was looking at the motionless heap that was Dice. When he twisted around to try and shoot his attacker, he managed to fall with his back facing Yossi and her kidnapper, so she finally saw what the twin had flung into his back. An identical razor to the one that the twin holding her had brandished by her ear. Yossi was sure that the whole moment she took to study the scene was only a couple of seconds, but they seemed to have lasted forever. A headache was slowly taking over her mind.

The phased twin finally turned on the remaining women. The tallest began shooting, bullet after bullet, uselessly at him, but didn't seem to realize that this was firing in the general direction of Yossi and the other. Her twin moved quickly towards the door to escape from the inadvertant attack. The huge entrance doors swung away with incredible force and made a terrible crashing sound. Yossi closed her eyes then, not from the noise, but the brightness of the day. The ground was still wet, and clouds studded the sky and blocked out the true sunlight, but outside, it was a lot brighter than the dimness of the apartment. Not to mention she rarely ever left her apartment, staring consistantly at the glow of the computer screen. She felt like she was enterting a new world after the building, and it seemed quiet after the firing guns. It seemed like the woman who had been shooting at the twin had stopped, but the twin that was holding her was still moving. Yossi's eyes were mostly closed, but she could see the fallen heap of another person, another girl laying in the sad garden of the apartments behind a small tree and mostly dead bushes. No one seemed to notice her, but she doubted if anyone had seen her, that they'd stop and try to help.

The twin was opening the door of a black car parked in front of the brick building of the apartment complex and shoved Yossi in unceremoniously. She was only now pulling away from her shock and almost said something before the door was slammed shut. He knelt down to look into the window and grinned at her, a small curve of his pale lips, then turned and visited the girl in the garden. Yossi's hand was on the latch to open the door, but he turned and pointed a gun that he had picked up from the fallen body of the girl at Yossi. Her eyes widened and she released the handle of the door like it was hot. He grinned again, but Yossi wasn't watching him anymore. Several gunshots echoed faintly from the building and the phased body of the other twin was backing through the closed door. Both were now running at the car that Yossi had been shut into. Again, they didn't even bother opening doors, but phased through and returned to normal sitting in the seats, turning the key of the car and slamming into gear. The door of the apartment crashed open with a hail of gunshots. The taillight was now busted from a bullet, but they didn't seem to keen on firing in public. Yossi creeped up to look through the back window after hiding from any stray bullets that might lodge itself in her forehead, and watched as one of the women was talking on a cellphone, or what she perceived to be a cellphone since all she could see was that her hand was cradling her ear.

Still peering through the backwindow, even after the women were gone from her sight, Yossi finally vomited. All over the backseat so that after she was finished she had to huddle close to the cardoor in a small place that wasn't slimey with her vomit. After there was nothing else, her stomach clenched into a single nervous knot as she peered at the white dread-locked heads. They weren't speaking, and this seemed adnormal, even more so than being kinapped by albino twins. The silence, though, gave her some piece of mind. She certainly would have hated to hear any of their plans that they might have. Shouldn't they have commented upon her weak stomach? This car wasn't cheap, she was sure of it since the interior seemed to be expensive leather and other materials. The windows were heavily tinted, no one could see through, but she traced a finger along the glass in idle thought. Her capters were strong, silent, and deadly. She watched one kill two people while the other wisked her away into a car, threatening to shoot her if she tried to flee. Her only hope was picking up the bloody remnants of their friends in her apartment building. She'd been told a strange story about the supposed world she lived in and now she was being driven away by two strange, deathly pale men that could transform into some ghostly version of themselves.

Yossi could feel bile inching up her throat. She wanted to swallow it down, but her eyes trailed over to the mess on the seat beside her and she spit up orange, acidic juice upon the back of the passenger seat in front of her. She groaned quietly, the twin must have felt it, heard it, smelt it. She squeezed her eyes closed as the man slowly reached around to the back of his hair. A white finger lightly touched the warm fluid and he quickly brought his hand back in front of him. The smell was beginning to grow heavy.

"We should clean some of this up," the twin in the passenger seat said darkly.

"Can we, please?" Yossi said feebly, bringing her legs up onto the seat to escape some of the dripping mess.

Both twins exhaled loudly through their noses. They were now leaving the business district of the city, varying types of stores were coming into view. Yossi was hoping they'd turn into a gas station as cafe's, bar's and corner stores were passed by. This would be considered the 'afterhours' district, a place Yossi had never wandered into. The buildings were old, like her apartment, different from the shiny buildings they had passed on their way to wherever. The sleek car was finally slowing down, a gas station, a savior from the growing stench that the vomit was exalting. Yossi had thought that watching the twins clean the car would be intriguing, they didn't seem the type used to washing vomit or other such things. She doubted they ever washed their own clothes. Maybe they had a closet with millions of silver and white suites, whenever they were finished with their clothing, they simply tossed it into a trash bin.

And she was right. The twin she had unintentinally spit vomit at phased in and out, magically clean, no more orange vomit in his hair, then opened the door she was leaning against and picked her out. His brother, meanwhile, casually opened the door of another car, whose owner was paying for gas and drove the short distance to the twin and Yossi. The owner never knew, and they drove away in a new clean car. Yossi watched the gas station in a trance, determined to see if the owner of the car would come out and notice his loss, but they were too far gone to see. Turning around to sit quietly, back against the passenger side door, she watched their heads in a quiet, almost peaceful manner. She was certain if she asked they wouldn't tell her their plans, but she had to put out at least one question.

"Are you part of the Matrix?"

No answer, she expected that much, and turned her gaze to the outside. The windows weren't as heavily tinted, now, but she would hate to find out what would happen if she tried anything. She knew they hadn't threatened her any more, not even in the operation of stealing the car, but she wasn't curious. In all truth, she was too tired to try anything. She hadn't eaten a full meal in a month and with all of this excitement and activity, and vomiting the carcass of her apple and ramen noodle breakfast wasn't fun. With a sigh, she decided that maybe if she asked the right question in the right way, she'd get some sort of answer.

"Is there a good reason behind this?"

No answer.

"Are you going to kill me?"

No answer, again she sighed.

"Where are we going?"

She was now asking the questions with failing enthusiasm. Still no answer.

"What are you guys?"

Nothing, yet.

"Ghosts, part of the Matrix?"

"Will you answer me?" She actually mumbled this.

"We are here," the twin in the passenger seat stated flatly. Yossi's eyes brightened before she realized he hadn't answered her, but just commented on the situation. It was Yossi's turn to remain quiet. She didn't try to open the door, remembering the last time she reached for the handle and the twin's twisted grin with the gun in his hand. She couldn't get a good look at the building they had pulled up to, but it must have been big. They were still in the same district with the bar's and cafe's and various types of malls and shopping centers. The twin looked down at her through the window almost expectantly. It was intriguing how even with the glasses they could communicate affectively by facial expressions. Yossi tentativly opened the door, stood and watched the twin with the door between them. He still watched her like a hawk as she closed the door and began following the other twin towards the door of the large gray building. It was mostly windows and had a decorative entrance with columns and a place to stand under when it rained. The twin followed her from behind and she felt like she was on parade. This surprisingly didn't attract the attention of those coming and going passers-by. The glass door slid smoothly as they approached, and closed behind with the sound of moving air. The inside of the building easily reflected it's outer appearence, expensive with a touch of Italian decoration. Nearly unbearably cold, however, she quickly found out as goosebumps raised upon her arms. She sighed slightly as the twin behind began walking at her side. She stole a look at his silver coat and his perfectly white hands that didn't show a sign of realizing the frigid temperature of the place. In her baggy short sleeved shirt and loose cloth pants, she was neither warm, nor stylish in this scene. But contrary to what she expected, no one spared her a single, indignant glance. This alone was unsettling, more so than travorting through a high-cost building with two pure white men.

Squeezing her eyes tight for a moment, the gravity of the situation finally descended upon her as they approached one of the many stainless steel elevators. As they stood there, quietly, patiently waiting for the doors to slide open, she felt nausious again. Wet brown eyes glanced at both twins in turn, on either side of her. They didn't move. Yossi decided deep, gulping breaths would help until the doors open, perhaps she could faint on the way to whereever they were going.

Welcoming them into it's shiny depths with a flood of people, the trio entered the elevator alone. This perplexed Yossi, there was a small crowd waiting at the other elevators and there was easily enough room for ten to ride, but she didn't have time to ponder this as one of the twins pressed one of the many, tiny buttons and the doors slide smoothly closed. Now would be perfect to ask her questions again, she quickly decided.

"Where are we going?"

This was, yet again, met with stony silence. She moved to stand more in front of them, as they stood stock still as if they were at attention.

"Just tell me if I'm going to die!" she didn't mean to yell, and in the enclosed place it sounded much louder than it would have. Yossi's heart began hammering in her chest and she had to urge to crawl into a small place when both of them simultaniously turned there attention upon her.

"All humans die eventually," one of them said with a devious grin. Yossi's eyebrows rose at this in a worried, yet perplexed expression. That was an odd way to put it, yet she decided to word her question a little differently, since his answer was irritatingly skirting the question.

"I am going to die..as in you murder me?" she could have picked different words, she thought exasperatedly.

There was a moment of silence and then, "No, not if it isn't nessecary."

A huge lump in the pit of Yossi's stomach quickly unravelled. That was incentive enough to be a good girl, yet she was feeling slightly upset that she didn't have anymore dire questions that needed answering, and felt foolish when she was standing with her back to the open door and the pale twins with their expectant and patient faces. The door almost closed on one of the twins as he moved out first, but he placed a hand upon the bumper and it stayed open long enough for Yossi and his brother to exit. The ride was long and Yossi had a strange feeling that they were near the top of the building as they began walking down what could only be a hotel hallway. She had the urge to say something in the air conditioned silence. With only the hushed sound of their feet upon some expensive carpet, it was nearly unbearable with a sort of sanctuary aire about the long, cold hall. The decorations along the way were only quiet paintings and silver doorknobs that Yossi could hardly contain herself from grabbing ahold and twisting. Yet this was blocked, of course, by the twins. One was slightly ahead of her and the other at her side. They were about to reach the end of the hall, which ended with a simple table and a vase of a couple roses when they stopped at a door indenticle to the rest. The twin that was leading their little parade pulled out a keycard and they were in. The room was much like the entrance of the building. Expensive design, yet frigidly cold. There was a small kitchen that contained a full size refrigerator that Yossi was sure held some sort of food to fill her empty stomach, and pale blue walls that barely separeted the kitchen, living room and a huge, heavily covered bed. It seemed like a small mansion, and the large windows made it fit. There were signs of being lived within, which broke the spell. The bed was slightly fussed and the cushions on the black leather couch were out of place, and as Yossi moved further into the room to see the rest of the bedroom, there were several computers and a laptop. All looked highly modified, exactly as Yossi had had hers. A pang of homesickness nudged at her insides at the thought of her computers.

She subconsciencly moved into the nearly victorian styled bedroom. The wood furniture made it seem so, as two of the computer were placed upon a large desk that was once used as woman's vanity. One of the screensavers seemed to be on as the whole screen was covered in symbols that fell down the moniter. One of the twins had followed her, watching Yossi as she quietly studied the four computers, and in the end switching her attention to the laptop.

"We'll be staying here if all goes well," he said in a bored tone. Yossi looked up to see him standing at the end of the wall with his arms crossed.

"Will I be able to use these?" Yossi couldn't keep the hopefulness out of her voice.

"That's the plan, but not today, we'll have to wait a couple of days.." he seemed to lapse into quiet thought, but Yossi couldn't reliably tell with his sunglasses still on. She wanted to bring the topic of exactly what they needed her for to discussion, but could really only think of settling her hunger at the moment. Instead she looked slightly saddened, and passed the twin on the way to the kitchen. She was feeling at home already, though still out of place, considering she was here against her will. The idea to ask exactly why she had to wait a couple days didn't come to mind, she was far too intent on eating something to fill the void she'd created whilst vomitting in the car. In all of the excitement she'd forgotten to ask them about what Dice had explained as the Matrix until the very moment she opened the refrigerator. One of the twins had followed her into the kitchen, the same one she that was watching her look over the computers, she expected, but didn't do a thing.

"You're part of the Matrix," she said with finality, peering at the man over the door of the refrigorator. She had asked them in the car, and after she had time to give it a second thought, it seemed to be the only answer that fit. It seemed too odd to believe in the beginning, but adding in all of the strange events everyone had been in on her way up to this room, it seemed to fit.

The twin tilted his head to the side, still with a slight grin tilting the corners of his mouth, "you're a smart one."

"But why did you take me? They..almost saved me and you stopped them!" Yossi finally had a sense of loss. She now realized that she was almost aware of the Matrix, all on her own. She almost knew Dice and the rest of them like family, and they were dead. She was almost free. Being alone for such a long time in a world that she didn't belong in, it was almost gone, and she didn't know if there would be another chance at escaping. All of this was crashing down on her shoulders at once. Her knuckles were white from the pressure she was squeezing on the smooth black handle of the refrigerator. Her gaze was out of focus and watery as she stared down at the wooden floor, the tips of the man's boots, made out of some animals scales, was barely in her view. Tears that wouldn't fall blurred her vision, but she didn't cry. She wanted to simply shut down, forget about the hunger gnawing at her insides and the small fact that she had been kidnapped and stolen away from a golden oppertunity. She blinked the tears away and numbly released the handle after realizing her hand hurt and walked past the twin with her head hung low and defeated. They only spoke when they thought it was absolutly nessecary, so she didn't believe he had any good excuse to console her with. The other man was sitting on the couch, and there was only one other place to sit, a matching, equally leathery and expensive chair. Unfortunatly, the room was set up to make idle chitchat easy, like at a party, so the silence that settled in was akward, and marked with almost silent sighs as Yossi reflected. The twin that had been present at her moment of revelation had traveled from the kitchen to the bedroom, and then from the bedroom to the livingroom, where he sat on the couch, opposite the end that his brother was reclining at.

An hour seemed to pass in the type of silence you encounter at a library. Yossi's eyes were slightly too wide and red, she hadn't blinked in a while until she looked at the two men on the couch. She glared softly at them, and only one seemed to notice since he grinned broadly at her while his brother seemed to be peering off into space. She wanted to tell him to stop it, the urge was almost too much, but she settled for something different.

"Why don't you talk? Even if it's to each other, I promise not to judge you," she said this with an awkward frown that got the other's attention as well. His expression was a little like his brothers, only not so much. She figured she could easily hate them now that she realized just what they had done.

"Why do you need us to speak so badly?" the twin with the largest grin, sitting nearest to her asked in the same even tone. The way in which he spoke wasn't condescending, but the look in which accompied the words was infuriating.

"I don't know, it's just so quiet.." she shrugged, her look of disdain subsiding a bit. She thought she could blame it on the absense of conversation that she had been submerged in. She only spoke to her clients, and that was usually online. She loved her computers, but they couldn't talk to her. They couldn't comment on her clothes, or tell it was time for lunch. They were indifferent, and while she was used to that then, only now was she feeling the effects of the silence. She felt cheated that when she was finally in the presence of somebody that could talk, yet they wouldn't. It was worse that she couldn't bring herself to explain this. "I would also like it if you could explain why I'm here..exactly."

The twin that was sitting farthest away let his gaze wander again, his head was now resting against an arm propped upon the armrest as he looked in the completely opposite direction, apparently studying the painting hanging above a small table with another vase of roses.

"We only need you to do a little task that we can't. You were right that we are programs in the Matrix, but what we need done is not possible for us, but will be for you." This seemed to catch the wandering twin's attention. Yossi got the creeping sensation that he was watching her with much more attention than he was watching the painting, she couldn't bring her gaze back to the twin that was finally telling her what she had so earnstly wanted to hear. "You will break into the mainframe of the Matrix, it would be impossible for anybody but you, since you are still connected to it, almost like a program."

Yossi's gaze was finally pried from the intense expression of the silent twin, her brows were furrowed in obvious confusion. "But the Matrix is what we are living in..How could I hack into..the world?" The way she worded it seemed amusing to her, but the twins were showing identical expressions of complacency. "The computers in that room are connected to a program that will make more sense than us trying to explain it in words."

---

End note/I had a hard time determining when to end this. I think, if I had stopped the first time, it would only be half this long. I'm not a fan of short, or long chapters, so it's weird. Wouldn't want to be a hippocrit, right?


	3. Chapter 3

Beginning note/none

---

"Can I see?"

"No, it'd be best if we waited before looking into it. We created a lot of noise, today. Taking you from those rebels before the Agents is bringing a lot of attention to us," the twin said matter-of-factly. Yossi had the general idea that 'Agents' were the bad guys, and 'rebels' were the good guys, so where did that put the twins? She figured that asking out right would get a biased answer in return, so she didn't bother putting out the question. The other twin was no longer staring, but again his attention was off in space. Yossi sighed quietly again, pretty satisfied with her questions for now. It was a time like this, she believed, that would be great for getting personal, but altogether, she wasn't keen on the idea. Perhaps she was simply too tired. Too much stress and adrenaline for one day.

"Where do I sleep?" This acheived both twin's attention. "I'm tired.." she said needlessly, but was surprised when it was the farthest twin that answered. "We won't be needing the bed, you can sleep there."

This was intriguing, Yossi was expecting that she would be sleeping on the couch, and she would have been happy with that. It certainly seemed comfortable enough. The only explaination for this was that she had missed part of the room. Was there another bedroom? There didn't seem like enough room. Yossi found herself looking over her shoulder, but it ended in an equally decorated wall as the rest of the hotel room.

"Where will you guys be sleeping?"

"We won't be," the closest twin answered, both had blank, expressionless faces, as if they expected her to have known this. A single brow rose, but she decided it wasn't needed to press the topic, as she doubted she would ever get clear answers. She was at a loss, trying to decide how to excuse herself from the slowly darkening room. Evening was pressing in and despite the pallid tone of their faces, it was becoming more and more unsettling how the details were melting away into a color one shade lighter than shadow. The only imperfection left was the streak of black that was their sunglasses. Chills were rising on her skin, and for some reason she was reminded of the moment when one of the twins was standing behind her, holding her neck and a cold trickle ran down her spine. She wanted to shiver, but held it off and finally she stood and simply headed for the bed room. The laptop was no longer on the bed, and she remembered how one of them had entered the room after she left the kitchen. She peered back at the computers, sitting there idly. Both seemed for have their screensavers on, the lime green symbols were swiftly tumbling down the screen on the black background. It seemed rather original to her, she'd never seen it before. It wasn't like the usual, the fish tank, the spiralling things, all of the other default choices. Though it seemed familiar, she didn't dwell on it long, and was happy that at least it was dark and didn't give off much of a glow as she flung the decortive pillows to the wooden floor below and situated herself in the sea of feathery pillows and thick covers. She hadn't realized how cold it was until then. With the press of the earlier days emotions draining her to pure exhaustion, and the soft bed with it's warm, safe feeling, it didn't take long to fall asleep.

---

It seemed that she had slept an impossibly long time when she finally opened her eyes again. The room was too light from the floor to ceiling windows that almost completely shown into the bedroom. Yossi wasn't used to this at all. In her crummy apartment, the room that housed her computers had windows that were covered by thick blankets. The thought made her feel dirty, like she hadn't had a shower in a week. Looking at the deep blue of the sheet that was wrapped around her, and the pure white of the thick comforter, she felt horribly out of place. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and finally crawled out of bed. She was intensely curious as to what the twin's did for the whole night. The thought rather frightened her, actually now that she thought about it. She quickly exited the bedroom, through the large entranceway and was looking directly at the empty couch. With a slight turn of her head, she was peering into the small empty kitchen, but didn't really exactly expect to see them there anyways. If they didn't sleep, she certainly didn't expect them to eat, either. The bathroom? That was where she was heading anyways, might as well check there as well. The bathroom required walking to the almost empty part of the room, behind the chair, along the wall that boxed in the open bedroom. It was quiet and the door was open. The room was small, but had all of the nessecities, along with a large bathtub, seperate from the walk-in shower. She momentarily forgot about the absense of the twins and revelled in taking a bath in a tub that was actually clean. This took up the rest of the morning and an hour into the afternoon. The room was quiet, and she didn't worry herself by overthinking the situation. She knew this could happen, as when she was learning to hack, she often overthought and made things far too complicated. Not thinking was harder than expected, but oh so relaxing. It would have been possible to fall asleep again after she had wiped all of the grime away from living in a dirty apartment for so long, but something surprising broke the trance.

Yossi was in the midst of intense relaxation, her eyes were almost closed and the scent of the shampoo and soap were flooding her mind, but she still heard someone grip the little doorknob. Her eye's were wide with shock when she heard the door click open. It would have swung in the direction that didn't block the bathtub from view, so she sat up and covered herself as best as she could.

"I'm in here!" she shrieked, hoping to keep her modesty. The door hadn't opened much, but she could see the same pale silver arm of the jacket and the pure white hand gripping the doorknob through the decoratively rusted rack that held towels and hand rags.

"We were looking for you," the voice seemed strained, but closed the door quietly. Through the white wooden door, she could hear the retreating footsteps. The incident left her toweling dry and putting on her old clothes. After the clean scents of the soap, she wrinkled her nose at returning to the soiled shirt and baggy pants that were meant for sleeping in. She sighed and grudgingly left the warm air of the bathroom.

Walking into the midst of the livingroom, one of the twins was occupying the oversized chair. He had his back to her as she was leaving the bathroom, but she knew he was aware of her approaching, despite her quiet entrance. She had the urge to at least try to surprise them one day. Them with their cool exterior, she knew it would be great.

"I need clothes.." she said as she passed the chair with the twin reclining in it. She could see into the bedroom that his brother was on the laptop, sitting at the end of the unmade bed with the laptop resting on one of his legs, brought up to rest on his other knee. She crossed the empty space, filled only with a thick round carpet and fell into the couch. The twin hardly glanced at her but turned his head to look at his brother. From the chair, there was nothing seperating them, but from the couch, the view was almost blocked by the wall with it's single lightswitch. Even that was decorative with a plate like rusted metal, designed with leaves. It stood out against the white walls, and instead of trying to watch the twin on the bed, she was studying the lightswtich.

"We will get you some soon..you might be needing some anyways." The voice was that of the twin in the bedroom, which surprised Yossi.

"Might be? I need some now.." she said this with a sneer and she glared at the lightswitch. She didn't continue however, and was quickly back up and rummaging in the refrigorator. She was astonished to find only the ingrediants for a simple turkey sandwich, but in the side for the frozen food, enough sweets to more than fulfill the needs of a little girls sleepover. Icecream and all that reside in that side of the food pyramid dwelled there in herds. At the sight of this her stomach lurched with a loud wail. She almost audibly groaned and quickly snatched out a small box icecream and headed back for the couch. The other twin was already sitting there, watching her approach with the icecream in one hand and a large spoon in the other. She shrugged at him and sat on the couch, huddled around the box of icecream. She sighed loudly when she felt the uncomfortable silence settling in.

"There must be something for you guys to talk about..Is that all you do, sit here in silence? You both must be mute when i'm not here," she glowered at them, then shoved a large spoonful of vanilla icecream into her mouth. The twin on the couch caught her gaze again, even behind the dark glasses as the his brother spoke again, "Remember when we said that we were programs in the Matrix?" Yossi slowly nodded, swallowing the icecream abruptly, "Did you ever think that being programs might come with its perks?"

Yossi turned her eyes to look at the twin on the far side of the couch with a suspicous glare, "Are you talking about..telepathy?"

"Somewhat," the twin on the chair stated simply, making her turn her gaze once again. There was a long moment of silence before Yossi realized that they weren't going to explain, she debated a bit on whether she should ask again, but waited till she finished about half of the icecream off. Neither were watching her, but she was now paranoid about what they might or might not be conversing about through their minds. She wondered if she would regret asking. Perhaps that was why they never went to details. Groaning audibly, she was too late to stop it. Her stomach was growling loudly, but not from hunger anymore. She put a hand over her mouth and realized that both were curiously watching her again. She slid from the couch and quickly, yet quietly put the icecream back into the freezer. She returned, but didn't sit down. Stretching a bit she eyed them closely. Only the twin on the couch was watching.

"Do you think maybe we could get some clothes for me? I don't have any money..but.." she trailed off, glancing around the luxurious hotel room slyly.

There was silence for a moment, and Yossi could have sworn she heard one of them sigh, "Very well," the twin on the chair said slowly, then looked to his brother, "I will take you..," he said again, a bit defeated. He rose gracefully, still peering at his brother before he simply walked to the door, Yossi trailing behind quite content with herself. Some part of her made her want to feel guilty about taking advantage of whatever account they were drawing money from. Maybe she did, but she believed the less she thought about it, the less she'd feel bad. So with a heavy, but relieved sigh, she followed the white man out the door as if this were normal. Thoughts of escape once again rose and were once again dashed as she serenly watched the swaying of his long silver coat.

Back down through the elevator, the trip was silent except for the hum of the motor. Because she was so tuned in on that small noise, she couldn't remember if there was even any of the monotone music whispering in on the relative silence. Again the quick trip through the foyer and out in the sunlight of a clear day. Yossi squinted at the natural light and cursed her eyes for being so used to the glow of the computer screen. Like a loyal puppy, she followed the hard-to-miss form of the twin as he wound through the small afternoon crowd. It was a Friday and not yet time for rush hour to clog the city streets and sidewalks. Quickening her pace, Yossi caught up to walk beside the nearly completely white man. It was still difficult to imagine this dread-locked thing as a program. She was withholding the urge to grab a hold of his coat and feel to ensure that he was there. She mentally shook her head as she watched a couple of people pass by them, but the temptation wouldn't go away. Her eyes kept wandering to where he was casually walking beside her, and then to the pedestrians on the sidewalk to see if anyone was staring. Not once did she catch anybody looking. The notion that he was invisible came to mind, and when normally she would have immediatly dismissed the thought, this new revelation about the Matrix made her think a little longer about it. He could communicate with his brother through their mind, somehow. They never actually gave a definite answer on that, and they might have just been trying to scare her. She didn't realize that she glared resentfully at the thought until the twin actually spoke.

"Angry?" came his monotone question. It was almost not even a question in his accent.

Yossi's gaze dropped to the old cement, embarrassed, "..No.." she lied.

The twin only smirked in response, and once again they were in silence. Yossi sighed when she realied they were going to walk the whole way. She thought this wasn't needed, but then she'd never been to wherever they were going. She didn't know, but she concluded that she had never visited the place since she only shopped for necessities online and had her food delivered. Take-out was so convient.

"Where are we going..?" Yossi mumbled as she watched more people passing, trying to see if anyone would notice the pure-white man. No one seemed curious.

"It's not far."

Yossi didn't bother being persistant. They were passing alleyways now, and the still rising sun was casting half of the alley's in gray shadow. Trash cans and trash that must be ancient littered them, while rusting fire escapes offered a way out of the filth, scaling the usually brick buildings. Yossi found these breaks in the faces of the buildings fascinating and tried her best to study each one as they passed. They were walking at a mostly leisurely pace, so she had time to look. They had only passed about ten, Yossi hadn't started counting until they passed several, when the twin halted in his tracks, grabbed Yossi by the arm and dragged her into the alleyway she had been overlooking with a quickness that nearly pulled her off of her feat. He pressed them both to the wall and they started inching slowly into the alleyways depths. They weren't in the shadow, which Yossi thought was absurb since he didn't blend in to the red brick at all.

"What's going on?" Yossi hissed frightfully. Her pulse had dramatically jumped. If it was going to be anything like the fight at the apartment, and she had a bad feeling about it, she would probably end up dead. She wasn't surprised when the twin didn't answer her, but turned a stern face that easily communicated for her to be silent. His attention snapped back to the entrance of the alley. A loud explosion seemed to have gone off before Yossi could see what caught the man's attention so quickly, and before this clearly registered in her mind, the twin shoved her to the ground brusquely and phased into his ghostly form. Yossi sucked in a loud breath as her knees bruised on the cement that was even older than the sidewalks and the flesh upon her palms stung red. There was another loud explosion that must have been gunshots if Yossi hadn't thought it was absurd for a cannon to be firing at them, and she was yet again picked up and shoved behind low cement steps that led to the back door of some building. By peeking over these step's, Yossi could see that the twin was now running for one of four similiar men in three-piece suites. Several more gunshot blasts and only then did Yossi realize the people beyond the entrance of the alleyway were mostly gone and screaming. They finally seemed to recognize something. The twin stayed in his untouchable form until he was within hitting distance, in which he drew the razorblade and began slicing at the agents. Yossi was sure that was what they were. The other three that the twin wasn't focused on were closing in, but everytime somebody threw a punch or kick, since they were in danger of hitting themselves with bullets in this closerange combat, he would easily escape the assault by phasing. This made things equally difficult since he couldn't touch them while phased.

They were moving so quickly. Yossi caught her breath as they twisted, turned and bent in ways she thought were impossible. This didn't carry on for long, as Yossi could no longer watch when the door as she tucked below and behind the steps opened. The gray metal blocked her vision as the door creaked noisly open. She peered up at the intruder. She should have been surprised when she saw the pallid face of her kidnapper. She smiled weakly as he looked down at her, slightly startled for a second, then let the door slam closed behind him as he descended the stairs and joined his brother in the heated midst of their battle. It was a jumbled mess of ducking, dodging and phasing for several moments as Yossi watched, mesmerized. Nobody seemed to be winning even though four on two was hardly fair. Yossi had unconsciencly stood as she watched the ethereal battle. The agents were moving so fast, it was obvious they weren't human. Some of them were in danger of falling over when they bent back to retreat from the spinning razor blades. Her heart stopped when one of the suited men broke from the fight and pointed a gun at her. He must have been catching glimpses of her in the heat of the fight when she believed they were all focused on the life or death battle. One of the twins reached from him, but had to phase as a punch had been aimed at the side of his face, so his hand went through the offending agent. Yossi ducked, but she had heard the clatter of his shoes heading for her. She bit her lip and squinted her eyes. Closer, closer, she would die.

But instead of what she had expected, a gunshot, pain and death, she was on her feet. She was running, and behind her the echoing explosion of gunshots were issuing loudly, then halted abruptly. The fight had found it's way to the agent. Yossi peered over her shoulder for an instant, nearly stumbling, and caught the glimpse that made her heart stop. Another agent had targetted her, but one of the twins had slit his throat and disappeared into his ghostly form. The agent toppled over, grasping his throat and the deep gash that split it open, then transformed into a completely different person. A normal looking person. She didn't see anymore than that, as she ran and dived behind another set of stairs. But this time, two of the remaining three broke from the fight quickly and were running in Yossi's direction again. They were far, and she could see the ghostly forms of the twins catching up, but she still ran. Gunshots were exploding behind her, and she could feel them this time. This didn't strike her as odd. If the Matrix was a computer programmed reality, then she knew most of the rules already, didn't she? The bullets were close and fast, but she dodged them easily enough. Her mind was racing faster than she was as she jumped out of the way, diagonally, her feet touched the brick wall once to help her jump farther. She felt a lot lighter now as she dropped onto another set of steps and pulled the door open. She was inside the building when a bullet wrenched a huge hole in the rusted metal of the door.

The brick of the building muffled the sounds greatly. As she tore through what must have the remnants of a kitchen, only the sound of her movement and loud panting reached her ears. As she rounded the corner of a rusty, filthy table with various pointy objects, she stumbled and crashed, pulling a large black pot which clambored down on the floor along side Yossi. Tired, so very exhausted, she didn't want to stand back up. Her eyes fluttered closed as she only idly thought about the murky floor she was sprawled upon. It must be disease ridden. The sound of scurrying rats and other bugs now mingled with the sound of her slowing breath. The creeping sensation that she was safe where she lay was overcoming her, but she knew that was a lie. It would be best if right now she stood and ran. This was her chance of escape from her kidnappers and run far away. She could start over in a diffrent city with new computers, it would be easy. But right now, rest was all that was important. Her body was relaxing slowly and feeling impossibily heavy despite herself. With her eyes still closed, sleep would take over soon. The adrenaline that had poisoned her system was leaking away and leaving her feeling sore and terribly exhausted. She could never match those fighters, she was still human and thus the Matrix was working against her.

The sound of the door she had entered through banged open, echoing harshly in the barren kitchen. Yossi's muscles tensed and she lept from the floor. Her body was sore, but even more so when her nerves went taut as she sent the pot she had toppled to the floor, sprawling away and causing a horrible amount of rucus. She cringed and crept slowly and carefully around the side of the counter. In the echoes of the room, it was impossible to tell how many sets of feet were approaching. Yossi stopped breathing completely, croaching and hiding. The feet stopped and Yossi could have died.

"Stop hiding."

Yossi gasped, stumbled, turned over and burst straight into running again. She didn't look, she didn't need to. It didn't matter who won the fight, she would still escape, but it did surprise her somewhat when the explosion of a gun rattled her brain behind her. Flinging open the double doors that closed off the kitchen from the dining area, which was in no better shape than the kitchen itself, she pushed over a trolly, sending it crashing to the ground with a few plates and silverware. There were several more gunshots behind her and she was beginning to get an awful headache from the noise. The only exit was the front door which she believed undoubtedly to be locked, and then there were the bathrooms. That would be suicide to enter the bathrooms. Instead, she picked up a chair with a motheaten cushion and rushed to the decorative windows on either side of the door. They were tall and stainedglass, this must have once been a prosperous restraunt, but for now it was housing a gunfight and esape. Yossi hurled the chair at the glass, which shattered wonderfully in a multi-colored rainshower. She honestly didn't believe it would brake the first time, but her mind had wandered back to the laws of the Matrix. She was surprising herself greatly. Behind her, she could hear one of the swinging doors knock the trolly that she had bowled over and a cynical laugh. She hadn't realized she had looked over her shoulder until she saw one of the twins standing there in front of the doors as they swung home behind him. Yossi's eyes grew wide and she stifled a scream when one of her hands was caught and she was pulled through the window she had just broken. Both of her shoulders were caught and she was held fast where she was. They were standing on the sidewalk in the shadow of the building as people walked by. Oblivion must be a great place to be. She was blinking at the sparse light of the day and the bright white of one of the twins clothes. From this close, the bright silver of the coat seemed only a shade or two from being completely white. His brother climbed through the window gracefully, his boots crunching the glass on the cracked cement. She wasn't looking anywhere but the chest of the twin that was holding her still. She was feeling unreal at the moment. Incredibily calm.

"We suppose we didn't have time to get the clothing?"

Yossi only realized now that they only spoke the plural version of possessive nouns, since this was obviously not the twin that she had been walking with earlier.

"Obviously not, brother," the other twin smirked at his brothers trite answer.

"Well, no reason to worry, there are easier ways to acquire what we need.." Yossi couldn't see it, but the twin was smirking rather mischeviously.

"Do we have the key?" the twin's tone was disbelieving, and Yossi was becoming bored only staring at the twin's chest. She squirmed in his grasp, and was surprised when he released her. She turned around, facing the still smirking twin. He appeared devious with that expression on his pale face.

"If we'll be so kind as the escort us home, it won't do us any good standing out in the open like this," he tilted his head just slightly to the side.

Yossi finally spoke up, "Wouldn't one of you know what the other knows?"

They must have been in a good mood, since she didn't have to wait for an answer, as if the were thinking whether she was worthy enough to receive an answer or not, "it is obviously possible to withhold certain information. Though we don't have many secrets between us." They were back to solemn expressions, and this reminded Yossi that she was walking between them on her own free will. Her mind was processing the last moments of her life and wondering what this key was that one of the them was so surprised about.

"Can I ask what you guy's names are?" she hadn't realized she had asked the question until it was out of her mouth. This wasn't even what she was thinking about. She cringed slightly, but was expecting only silence, and that was what she got. She sighed, and could almost feel the walls they were building between them and her. Believing full that if she put her hands up she would feel the stoney silence. With a small shrug, she went back to thinking and figured they were somehow talking amoungst themselves in private, silent conversation.

With aching feet, they had finally arrived at the hotel without another incident. Yossi was feeling near collapse when the quiet elevator ride was at an end and the eerie silence of the hallway pressed against her temples. The rush of the airconditioner seemed impossibly loud as Yossi stumbled to the bed. Her mind had went blank by the time they had reached the hotel as she was feeling overcome with exhaustion. The key, the Matrix, everything was pushed from her mind, and the bed was looking very comfortable. A dull smile tugged at her mouth when the sight of it's thick covers and plush pillows overcame her. She sighed dreamily and fell into it's soft embrace. The twins were somewhere far away in her mind, but they had actually approached the closet near the bed and were fumbling around. With her half open eyes, they appeared like clumsy ghosts. Both had their backs to her as she lay on her stomach on the bed, she had no intention of pulling herself under the covers or up to the pillows. She lay where she had fallen and that was good enough for her. One was inserting a small key into the lock of the door. She knew there was nothing interesting behind it, she had scoured the room for anything else as intriguing as their computers. But when he stepped back and pulled the door open, the closet was full of clothing. On hooks and folded in neat stacks on the floor alongside shoes. Yossi squeezed her eyes tight. She was probably hallucinating. She was so near sleep. But both turned and peered expectantly at her. Picking her head up off the bed, which was rather hard since she was still laying on her stomach with her arms sprawled to either side, one hanging mostly off of the bed, she looked more closely, blinking several times to clear away the blurryness.

"Is that mine?" she asked thickly.

"Yes," one of them replied simply.

"...Ok.." feeling rather like she was being rude, she couldn't help but close her eyes and pass out.

---

End Note/none


	4. Chapter 4

Forenote/

---

Such blessed sleep. It is only truly appreciated when one is completely exhausted. When one cannot keep one's eyes open any longer and the numbing fingers of a dream wraps around one's body. Such a feeling can make you wish that you could sleep forever. Yet this can also be very disorientating upon awakening. When Yossi awoke into conscienceness, she was utterly unsure where and when it was. Taking several moments to get her barings straight, she rolled onto her back and swung her legs over to the floor. Her toes didn't even come close to touching the floor as she rubbed the side of her face that was imprinted with the cover she'd layed upon. After she'd realized just where she was, she slid off the bed and began searching the house. The daylight streaming through the windows seemed very bright after the darkness of her sleep. She padded noisily around to the kitchen, she noticed she was still wearing her shoes. Silently shaking her head at herself, she read the clock on the microwave to be seven in the morning. She blinked several times in astonishment. She'd slept the whole of yesterday. It couldn't have been later than five in the afternoon! Finally slipping her shoes off, she went on the short search of their room to find that yet again they were absent in the morning. She sighed loudly. The only thing to do was search that closet again and take a bath.

The closet was indeed amazing as she remembered, even with her apparent exhaustion from yesterday fogging her initial memories of it. Gingerly and contemplatively, she picked a simple outfit out and headed for the bath. Not taking as long as the last time, she did what was necessary and tried the clothes. It was curious how it was a perfect fit, but she didn't linger upon this. Without anyone to question the clothes about, just who had got them, knowing her size and all? Curious, indeed. She'd made it to the overlarge chair in the living room and fell into it's cushiony depths. There was nothing to do and boredum was setting in quickly. She hadn't realized how entertaining the twins were, even if they were kidnappers and stoic in their odd silence. Even after her exceptional sleep, she still yawned as she slouched in the chair. The luxorious hotel room couldn't hold her attention and there was no tv to be found. That left only the computers.

She thought on this for a while. She was brought here to use them, she knew that much. But she was also told, rather cryptically, that she should wait before getting on. However, she couldn't see any harm in acessing the internet and fishing around. Bouncing into the room, estatic to banish her lethargic boredum, she swivled the mouse around to clear the screen saver, which was only a blank screen. She grinned like a hungry wolf eyeing it's dinner as a familiar screen came to view. They must have been watching her for a while, everything seemed to be modified to her liking. Quick fingers were soon bringing up her favorites from the internet and she almost felt at home. The cold glow of the moniter as a welcome taste of her reality.

---

What she didn't realize, however, was that the Matrix tracer programs were monitering her progress very closely. After the deletion of several Agents at the hands of the twin, the eyes of several other programs were upon them, waiting for something to bring them to light. Yossi's entrance into these computers was the becon of a lighthouse. The Twins computers were rather special, they held programs connected to the Matrix that Yossi was soon curiously dabbling in, she was practically toying with the Matrix itself. Yossi huffed loudly, everything seemed as cyptic and mysterious as the Twins themselves. Perhaps she should have expected this. She mentally shook her head and went in search of some of the regular programs she used for her hacking. If they had wanted her to do her specialties, they should have included her own computer untensils, she thought bitterly.

A loud, yet oddly polite knock at the door halted her progress. She blinked wide eyes in surprise. Would the Twins knock at their own door? She doubted that, then a hotel worker, she thought with finality. She pushed away from the desk and walked to the entrance, yet stopped with her hand inches from the door knob. An terrible sinking feeling made her blood run cold. She couldn't move an inch closer to the door. Dread was running through her veins and she wasn't sure why. This wasn't like the last time she opened a door. Last time she knew with certainty that something good was lingering on the other side and she was right. Though they eventually died, it had been a good thing, but this time it was as if the exact opposite. A frigid sweat was ringing her hair line. Silence was all she heard, whoever was on the other side didn't seem perturbed that she hadn't answered yet, when anyone normal would have bothered to knock again.

There then was a click. It sounded ominous, she was reminded of a gun. She was suddenly sure that was what it was. Nearly stumbling over her own legs, and twisted around and sprinted. As she rounded the corner that led to the living room and the opening of the bedroom, a huge hole was blown into the door with a horrid and sickening explosion. Yossi's eyes were squeezed tight, but she realized that wasn't going to help. She heard that the rest of door was kicked in as she found the only place to hide was under the bed. She hated this, it wasn't like in the allyway where doors led to exceptional escape routes. Not to mention the absence of the Twins. Several sets of foot steps came muffled on the carpet as Yossi scooted beneath the bed. The skirt hid her in darkness, but something told her it wouldn't do to stay there for long. As soon as they passed beyond she would try her best to escape out of the door. She cringed, the sickening feeling she felt while in the car being kidnapped was coming back in force. This time, she was more than positive they were intent on her death. Only the sound of their feet could be heard. One of them was looking through the room, then moved on, they were heading for the bathroom. This would be her only chance. Her heart was hammering loudly, she felt as if she could taste her pulse in her mouth as she pushed herself to the edge and rolled out from under the bed. Jumping up, she moved faster than she knew possible, but right into the view of an Agent as he was moving from the kitchen to the living room. For a short second, she thought she had surprised him.

"There," he said slowly and delibrately with a dead pan expression as he raised his gun and fired.

She could see the bullet, she had plenty of time to dodge and run. The short entrance hallway to the door was clear of Agents, but marred with splinters of wood from the once white door, that was now lying in ruins on the carpet. She vaulted it, moving like she never had in her life as several more shots were fired. All missed but one. Fire seemed to have grazed her waist. She twisted away, but this caused her to stumble upon landing, and she rolled out into the gray and white hallway. The Agents were gathering and moving as one now, straight for her. She stood and ran for the only exit, which was looking further away than she remembered as she streaked down the hall.

One of the Agents climbed through the door, and then another, but Yossi wasn't looking, her full attention was on the elevator. Another explosion behind her, and she nearly screamed in joy as the elevator door opened, just as the bullet embedded itself in the white wall by the entrance to it. The Twins were watching her sprint for them. Both looked shocked, one of them had their mouth just slightly open, but they quickly regained their composure and stepped from the elevator as Yossi dashed in and pressed herslf to one side, her hand on the bumper to keep it open, but they didn't seem ready to reenter. It seemed like firecrackers were exploding in the hallway, and several times the back of the elevator was hit. Yossi cringed and only then realized that she had been shot. She touched her side and examined the blood upon her fingers in silent shock.

Meanwhile, the twins were advancing upon the agents, they had stopped firing once they realized they couldn't damage them while they were phased into their ghostly forms. Yet again, the twins were outnumbered by two. They were soon amongst the Agents and flinging their razors about, but rarely drawing blood. Yossi sank to the floor, still pressing herself to the wall with one hand on the bumper of the elevator, the other softly cradling her side. Bright, multi-colored spots were swimming in her vision. She wasn't sure if she really was swaying her not, but gaze was beginning to go black around the edges. The explosions were echoing somewhere far away and seemingly harmless. She groaned, and even the sound of that sounded far off. The bullet wound no longer burned, but was numb, and she was sure that wasn't a good sign.

Squeezing her eyes tight, she wasn't aware of the ghostly figures surrounding her, but when they heaved her upward, and the wound came alive with a horrid vengence, her eyes shot open, one of the twins was holding her on her feet while the other hit the button to descend. Several more explosions shook the elevator and a hand shot through the steel of the door and wrench it partly open. The closest twin twirled his razor and several cuts sprang upon, spattering blood everywhere. The hand didn't retreat, even while the elevator was descending. Yossi had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach and closed her eyes tight, turning her face into the white fabric of the twin that held her upright. While she wasn't looking, the twin gripped the writhing hand and plunged the blade in, twisting it to the side and wrenching it out again. The Agent finally retreated, probably to change bodies. When Yossi finally opened her eyes, the amount of blood in the evelator was astonishing. The side of the twin that was nearest the mayhem was drenched in large red spots and splatters, and she could feel the cooling wetness of it on her face. Her waist was already crimson red, and as she looked down at the heavy liquid, she remembered the pain with full force. Some part of her tried to tell her that she wasn't really bleeding, but the pain didn't allow her to believe it.

She sagged through the grip of the twin, but he held her fast. She glared up at him, wishing he would just let her rest, but he didn't budge. She wanted to yell at them, let them know that she wasn't as strong as they were, that she couldn't do the things they could, but the doors to the elevator chimed open, and before she could turn to watch them slide open, the twin wrapped his arms around her and pressed her tightly against the cold side of the elevator. She had a glimpse of his brother phase and glide through the door and a hail of bullets through the ivory dreadlocks of the twin before she closed her eyes, hoping that would somewhat dim the sound of several loud and powerful guns. Sparks flew as the bullets embedded themselves into the back of the elevator.

"Stay here," she heard the now phased twin speak into her ear as she watched parts of his coat and hair float through her own body. She thought she wouldn't have been surprised, she'd seen this form of them several times, but not this close. He seemed to have sent a cold breeze through her body, and she felt somewhat lost once he left through the door. She heard the chime of the doors start to close and shot out a hand to stop them, even through the bullets that turned back onto the elevator once the second twin exited. They hadn't been gone long. The explosions were less frequent, they must have been in the midst of battle, but her eyes blinked open again in surprise as a white form grabbed her up and pulled her into the lobby of the hotel. She could see his twin fighting amongst only two agents, but several others that she pinned as more rebels. Even as they flew through the lobby, Yossi recognized one of the fighting rebels. The fallen girl in the garden of her apartment that one of the twins had retrieved a gun from. She closed her eyes, only being led by the twin and swallowed hard against the jarring pain in her side. She heard more running footsteps close behind and only had to guess that it was the other twin.

Though all other normal people in the hotel had been cowering away from the fierce battle, everyone outside was oblivious. They burst into the gray light of the morning. She was led to a new sleek black car, in which she scrambled into the back seat as the twins slid in easily and peeled away. Yossi fought for a couple of seconds with the seatbelt as they sped down the road in silence, with only blaring horns and the roar of the engine to take up the absence of speech. She squeezed her eyes closed and leaned foreward against the seatbelt, sitting down wasn't making the burning sensation in her side any better. The bullet, she now realized, had only scathed her, a flesh wound that hurt like hell. Besides the pain, she was also feeling guilt. She had upset the twins plans horribly and nearly killed herself and probably them as well. She was sympathizing with her abducters, it wasn't a good sign.

"I'm...sorry..," she mumbled, and, as expected, received no answer. She didn't let this stop her, however.

"Where will we go?" they didn't have the computers any more, and she couldn't see them returning to retrieve them any time soon. She figured the agents would take them. This sent a large and lumpy rock plummetting into her stomach. They would have her custom programs now. Things she had slaved over for such a long time. She felt like weeping, feeling sorry for herself, but instead she felt the car slow to a normal pace. They were barely going over the speedlimit. Nothing was pursuing them. The rebels must have distracted the agents long enough to let them escape. She sighed, feeling a creeping depression begin to ebb away the pain.

"We will go away for a while. We have lost an important moment in time. Tomorrow was to be the day that you were to complete the job, but now we will have to wait," Yossi thought she could hear a sigh within his tone as the passenger twin spoke, "we are not sure when another chance will arise."

"What 'job' was I supposed to complete? What did you exactly want me to do?" the aspect of the twins finally answering her didn't make her feel any better, she wasn't even expecting an answer, as usual.

"You were to delete any traces of our history and tracks within the Matrix. We would become invisible, which would make moving within the Matrix easier and safer."

Yossi blinked, taking in her supposed objective. Deleting normal history was one very easy thing to do, but she believed nothing was normal about the Matrix. She sighed, putting her face into her hands. She was already feeling dirty, and could smell the guns upon her skin, and worse than that, the blood of the agent. Her face was now crusted with drying blood, her shirt was stiff and didn't move with her. If she was forced to run again, she knew she would be like her shirt, unable to stretch or move. She doubted she would even have the energy to keep up with the furious pace the twins kept. They had to have slowed down for her on the run through the lobby, she realized.

The face of the girl rebel flashed through her mind again. She was definetly the same girl that had layed motionless outside of her apartment building. She shook her head, thinking that if she was alive, then those last two women that they had left in the middle of the road must have been with her, fighting those agents, but she just hadn't seen them. Had they been there for her? If the Agents hadn't shone up, would they have taken her? She couldn't determine if that was a good thing or not. The weight of the world seemed to be pressing down on her mind. She groaned loudly before she realized it. She looked up for a moment. The Twins hadn't moved, but now she realized that they were in a completely different part of the city. She'd never been here before. She blinked owlishly as she peered out of the tinted windows. This must have been the middle class area of town.

There were still skyscapers that looked somewhat important, but not was grand as the center of the city, like the large hotel they had stayed in. Monotone gray shopping centers now popped up every now and then, along with cruddy looking tattoo parlors and carshops and coffee houses. Almost everything was lined right on the sidewalks, this was where tourists came to. The suburbs would be near, something she hadn't been close to in a long time. It felt unlikely that the twins would approach them. More apartment buildings passed by. They looked to be in better keep than her own. It was one of these complexes that they pulled in to. It came complete with a playground and school nearby. She couldn't see the school, but it was just a feeling. The ride seemed to have taken forever, half of the day had been passed.

Pulling into a parking place, Yossi undid her seatbelt and waited for the twins to get out first. As they approached the buildings stairway that led to second floor rooms, Yossi was curious as to whether they already had a room. She held back any questions, time would answer her quickly enough, something the Twins weren't good at.

Like magic, one of them produced a key and unlocked the first room to come to after the stairs. One entered and the other waited for her, holding the door patiently. The room was dark, she missed the hotel already. Deep into the apartment, the first twin flipped on a switch to the kitchen. It was a step up from the rest of the living room, which was sparcely decorated with a large tv, a couch and a coffee table, the rest was taken up by a large dining table. A small hallway hid the doors to what must have been two bedrooms and a bathroom. The theme color seemed to be light blue, which made the whole place seem very clean and very cold. The question as to how long they were going to stay here arose in her mind, but she remembered their answer. They had no idea, and it wasn't comforting. She crossed sullenly to the couch and took a place at one end, but before she could get comfortable, she shifted in such a way that the arm of the couch rubbed painfully into her bloody side. She jumped up, stifling a sob. Both twins had migrated to the kitchen, and now eyed her curiously as one was leaning on the island, the other swiviling around in the bar chair. She didn't like how they watched her behind their sunglasses. She marched off to the bathroom, feeling even more depressed than before.

She poked carefully at the bruised skin that encircled her torn flesh. The dried blood was horribly painful as it stabbed into the fresh meat when she turned in certain angles. A white washcloth that was now stained red was draped over the white sink as she now examined the damage. It wasn't very deep, but that didn't make it any less painful than she expected getting shot felt like. She turned this way and that, testing her range of motion. She held her shirt high. Now that she had poked and prodded her gash, she was even more sore and couldn't stand the crusty, bloody shirt any longer. This made her doubt sleep would ever come pleasantly. Completely removing her shirt, she rubbed viciously at the foreign blood that had sprinkled across her face when a knock came at the door.

"What?" she sighed, not halting in her scrubbing, her own flesh was becoming red beneath the soap that had turned crimson in her progess.

"We have something to put on your wound," the voice was monotone, maybe they were still sore about her throwing a huge wrench in their plans. She grew all the more agitated at this and scowled as she pressed her shirt to her small chest, flung open the door, grabbed the supplies the twin had brought with a glare and threw the door shut in the surprised face of the twin. She wasn't perturbed to see that only one twin stood in the doorway, even though he had announced himself as 'we'. The way they spoke was so confusing, and only served to fuel her bad mood. After a long bath in the much less luxurious bathroom than the hotel, she gingerly towled dry. With the antibiotics and overly large bandaids on the gash, she slowly emerged from the bathroom into darkness. The sun had set while she was locked in the sanctuary of the bath. They must have already gone to bed. She pressed her ear to one of the rooms when she remembered that they didn't sleep.

Tip-toeing across the short distance of the living room she approached the door, hesitated a moment and then slowly exited. Fright flooded into her stomach for a moment, but she stepped out to see both twins turned and watching her, one was leaning against the rail that kept them from toppling into the parking lot. Their car was right below.

"I was..wondering where you two had gone.." she was close to retreating back into the house, but she realized that she had shut the door behind her, and she wasn't keen on appearing like an indecisive idiot at the moment in front of the twins. One of them was grinning at her as the other turned back to looking at whatever was down in the parking lot, still leaning against the wrought iron rail. "What are you doing out here? Won't the agents find you?"

The twin that had turned away answered her, "They are busy with the rebels. We are far enough away to not draw attention for now, but we will have to move again within a couple of days," this was the longest reply she had ever gotten, it seemed. She moved slowly closer till she was also against the rail, closest to the wall. She still felt their eyes upon her, behind the now needless sunglasses. It was just past sunset, the day had gone quickly it seemed. The warm morning had given way to a cool, breezy night, she could now see why they had left the apartment. She wasn't thinking that they were programs and in a computer generated world at the moment. The pain had dulled and the soft wind was nice, she had survived a vicious attack and was still in tact and almost enjoying the moment. The breeze was slowly lulling her into a safe, drowsy feeling. She wouldn't take advantage of the moment to ask any more questions, sleep was seeming infinetly more important. With little more than a wave and a mumbled 'g'night', she sleepily found her way to a room and crawled half-heartedly into the cool bed. Blessedly, sleep wasn't very far away, though her dreams were troubled with men in suites and very large guns.

---

End Note/Begins with sleep and ends with sleep.. I enjoy sleeping also.


	5. Chapter 5

Forenote/ I've got somewhat of a direction for this now. :o crazy, eh? Listen to Orbital and VNV Nation.

---

The rebels scattered from the lobby of the grand hotel, the agents were tireless, and the humans were low on ammo. Lute burst through the opening of the sliding doors, her gun discreetly at her side and uselessly empty. It didn't really matter if passers-by saw, she doubted they'd react, but was sure that she was invisible to them anyways. Nobody 'asleep' ever saw the rebels, only potentials. The black metal blended well with her vinyl long coat, but she tossed it away like it was trash, alone on the sidewalk. She had watched the ghostly twins run through the lobby with that girl in their midst, saw for just a moment as they peeled away in a black car. During the short but violent fight with them and the agents, she had tried her hardest to kill them, but bullets were useless, and hand combat was out of the question. She forelornly peered down the road for just a second before streaking down the crowded sidewalk in the opposite direction, in a search for the exit. Her team had all gone seperate ways, sidedoors and whatnot, so on this journey she was alone.

Down several allies she ran, vaulting trash and various types of debri, past lost looking homeless and even several children at play. Her only thoughts were upon how she could kill the programs that had stolen her friends. She was sure of following them with a tracer, but once she was there, what could she do? Her last fight had been short, painful, and sadly frightening. She ran till she found a fire escape, perilously rusty as if it had endured a million rainfalls. Leaping and grabbing the filthy legs of the ladder, she crawled up, only to watch it fall at the last moment. It clambored noisely on top of trashcans and cement. She turned and reached to wrench the door open, it creaked outwards before she could grip the doorknob, revealing a familiar rebel, her new captin.

"You were slow," he frowned, displeased. He was different from Dice in many ways, all were bad. His voice was old and gruff, and reminded Lute of an old rusty chesse-grater. Though he was reveared for surviving many imporant battles, and had scars to prove them all, Lute simply disliked him. He was like a stepfather come to replace your real dad, the only person you could ever call 'daddy'. She huffed and hunched her shoulders as she walked past him, but glared viciously at the ground. He knew she wanted the albino programs erased most dearly, but rarely let her talk on the subject. The other two surviving members of her old team had been put on different ships, far from her, but she knew they felt the same way.

"We can't leave yet, we should follow those two programs, they have a potential.." she knew the answer before he could even get it out. She was well aware that agents were in the way, but she wouldn't have let it stop her. The captin never seemed to fully realize that they had massacred her team. They turned an apartment foyer into a picture that was painted with the blood of her captin and friend. She was certain if the same had occurred for this old man, he would feel exactly as she, but the thought never seemed to cross his mind. For this, she was always at odds with the rebels of the team.

"Agents, Lute, they will kill us if we reveal ourselves again," he said with diminishing patience, "you will answer that phone first, alright?" he glared harshly, daring her to contradict his order.

Lute obediantly stalked to the phone with graceful anger under the eyes of four other rebels that she had never taken the time to acquaint herself. Thus all found her moody and rarely took a moment to converse, though all, also, knew the only thing she wished to talk about was her dead shipmates. Lute thought this was understandable, she was sure that if one of there own was killed in the Matrix, that they would react the same way, so her distance from the rest of the crew was nothing to ponder for long.

The room they had gathered in was a shadow of whatever had lived there in earlier times. Dust lazily coated the rotted linolium and wooden floors, as no other furnishings had been left behind. Shadows of ornaments and paintings dotted the walls. All windows were fogged with grime and mud from where they had leaked during past thunderstorms. The phone they had encircled was the only thing left, or was placed there by the programs of the rebels, and was perched neatly in the middle of a round stool, which fit the room perfectly, looking old and liable to turn to dust within the next year if it was left behind after all had journeyed to the real world. The apartment was in a forgotten, slowly rotting area of the city that seemed to be ruled by homeless and criminals. It was a surprise to find the area so quiet, all ears seemed to be tuned in to this moment and the world had stopped for just a second, waiting for the telephone to ring and the rebels to exit.

Lute glared down at the old phone harshly like it was the lone object of her fury and she would burn it with her withering leer. It emitted a twinkling ring as Lute watched it, sounding as if it were begging for mercy. It rang a second time, but Lute didn't move. She was curious how much patinence the captin harbored for her, how long she could stand watching the phone ring. What would he do if she simply walked away? She knew she couldn't, in order to exact her vengence she needed to stay alive.

"Answer it, Lute," the captin, she imagined, was watching her with the same glare she had on her own face. But as the phone squealed a third time, she wrenched the receiver from its base and put it to her ear, thus transporting her mind back to her body. She realized the captin would never give her a chance to kill the cursed twins unless the twins themselves gave him a reason. She would have to do it on her own time with her own strength. After getting off to a bad start with the rest of the crew, she doubted she could ever enlist their assistance. She could never bring herself to speak to them anyways, they didn't understand her in the least.

---

Yossi awoke feeling horridly sore. Her body was urging her to not move, remain stiff and lay in bed for the rest of the day. Healing would come slowly, she believed. Lifting her shirt, she found that the bandages were a darker color of her blood, and a lighter color on the edges. Rolling off the bed, she groaned and bent over, hands on her knees as she found the will to move to the bathroom. Her muscles pulled and stretched and she groaned loudly. Her voice surprised her, being the only sound within the dwelling except the whir of the airconditioner. The apartment was surprisingly cold, and the icy blue theme didn't help. As she exited her room, the soft hairs upon her arms stood up and goosebumps marched up her skin. Passing the opening to the living room, she read the clock, a lighter blue than the rest of the wall, that it was early in the afternoon. She glared drowsily and closed the bathroom door behind her. With much fuss and hissing, she changed the bandages with shaking hands and much difficulty. The bleeding had stopped, but the dried and flakey blood was like glue to her side. It was a fight to be rid of the bandages.

She was glad to leave the bathroom behind, smelling like antiseptic, she moved into the kitchen. How thoughtful, she mused, noticing two bags of groceries awaiting her on the island. Yesterday she hadn't eaten a thing, far too busy, and upon reaching the apartment, she was only exhausted. A rumble in her stomach urged her on to work quickly. As she explored through items, searching intently for something easy to make, one of the twins exited the hallway. He walked easily through the living room, with grace Yossi couldn't possibly muster in her state. She watched him with a seething glare of envy. How could he be so unperturbed after yesterday?

"Morning.." she muttered as he pulled a chair from the dining table. With his sunglasses still on, even in the gloom of the den, he peered at her as she pulled from the sacks enough to make a sandwich. She waved the lunch meat at him, "want one?" She had to give him something to say.

He only shook his head, and even that was only a small movement. Yossi sighed loudly as she went to assembling her lunch. A prickling of the hairs on the back of her neck was an annoyance as she did this, making the small task a bothersom duty. She knew the cause of this irritancewas sitting neatly at the table behind a pair of dark glasses. She glanced up at the twin with a frown, her eyebrows knitted together. He only watched her, sitting perfectly still.

"You shouldn't glare like that, it makes you seem ugly," the twin said simply with a smirk. One leg was propped up on his knee, his hands folded neatly in his lap. He seemed like a smug cat taught to sit in a chair and look like a haughty ghost.

Yossi growled, "well stop watching me like that! I told you guys I was sorry for ruining your plans, but maybe you shouldn't have kept me out in the dark like you did!" Yossi tossed the butter knife she had been using for her sandwich into the sink with a loud clatter. This seemed to amuse the twin, he grinned wider, showing the whites of his teeth, which was only a few shades paler than his skin, but matched the dreads of his hair.

Putting her halves of her sandwich together, she took a chair opposite of the twin, frowning suspiciously at his grin, which slowly faded as Yossi began eating.

"How is your wound?" he asked simply, surprising Yossi.

"It hurts,"she answered after much chewing.

"Then let that be your punishment for snooping in our computers," he said with a wider grin, which would have been handsome had he not said what he just did.

Yossi swallowed hard, gasping for breath afterwards, "what," she shrieked,"punishment! You never said I couldn't get on those computers!" She almost whined as she spoke, she'd never been talked to about punishment before, she was twelve and had never even been given a timeout that she could remember. Her memories of her parents were strong and for the most part content.

"But we never said that you could, either. They weren't your computers," he answered her shrewdly, needlessly wiping some invisible spec of dust off of his immaculate arm. Yossi's eyes were fogged with tears. She dropped her half eaten sandwich and left the table and program behind. As she was entering the hallway, the second twin came around the corner, peering down at her curiously as she bumped into him. She took a step back, glaring viciously and feeling daring enough to shove him aside, but cowardly enough to run into the bedroom, she quickly closed the door. Her heart hammered in her chest, and tears welled threateningly in her eyes, but she wouldn't let herself cry, not because of those two.

Still hungry, she couldn't bring herself to open the door and venture back out in search of another sandwiche. Her thoughts circled madly on the twins. Had she angered the one that she pushed aside? How could she ever know which one that was, so she'd know whether or not she should hide when she passed by one? And wasn't being shot a rather harsh punishment for getting on their computers? Her fingers ached to type on a keyboard again, to grasp a cold mouse and see the soft light of a monitor. Burying her face in the white pillow, she released herself to sleep.

---

When Yossi awoke for the second time that day, evening was beginning to surrender to night. The air was frigid, and a harsh wind brought the scent of rain into the city. The sound of an angry fist upon the thin door of the apartment echoed steadily throughout the rooms. Yossi was already slipping out of the hallway into the den when the knock threatened to tear the door down. The walls seemed to tremble around the doorjams, and a sliver of light appeared with each booming bang around the seam of wood. Yossi's eyes widened in surprise and she slowly approached the door. She heard the twins exiting their room. The fist halted it's assault upon the door, but was quickly proceeded by a foot, which broke two of the doors hinges, sending it halfway into the apartment.

Lute jumped through the opening, knocking Yossi to the floor with the butt of her gun and landing atop the younger girl, straddling her waist. But she wasn't looking at Yossi, her eyes had widened as a twin tackled her, sending both of them off of Yossi's fallen body. She was picked off of the floor, the other twin quickly deposited her limp body into the hallway, out of view, and went to his brothers aid.

Yossi wasn't unconscience long. She had been propped against the wall, which now had a bullet hole frighteningly close to her head. She reached up to a trickle of blood that ran beside her eye. She sighed, but was cut off by another loud explosion of a gun. Her eyes widened in the darkness. The only light was faintly shining deep inside the twins room. She suspected it was a bathroom light. How odd thoughts enter ones mind in strange situations. Yossi peered over the corner into the darkness of the den.

Lute was fairing better in this fight than the last time she encountered these programs. Vengence and hatred can fuel the body better than any food ever could. By force and threat, she managed to frighten the ships operater into plugging her into the Matrix. Her sole purpose was to erase the twin programs and safely hide the girl till she could have her captin awaken her. Lute's stomach was twisted in knots as she fought. Although she was fighting better, it didn't seem enough to overcome the twins. Guns were truly useless, she could never pull the trigger fast enough to surprise one, and drawing it took precious time away.

As Yossi watched, her eyes were wide with wonder. How had the rebel found them? She wanted to stop the fight, but she didn't know what she would say. Could she leave the twins? After today, the rebel seemed like a fine escape. But before she could do anything, the fight ended. Lute fell, exhausted and bloody, at the feet of the twins. Razor cuts striped her like a tiger, and dripped darkly to soak into the carpet. Her body trembled from the intense beating she had received. Not a scratch marred the perfect pale skin of the twin programs. They didn't even seem to breathe, even though Lute was panting. Her eyes were puffy and red, several razor cuts were frighteningly close, they must have been targetting her eyes, a dreadful thought. Yossi ran into the den, tripping and falling into a heap upon the rebel, who grunted when she landed upon her back, which stopped her from attempting to stand.

"No!" Yossi could only choke out that one word, stopping a twin from approaching. His razor rested cold and bloody in his hand at his side, promising the rebel only more pain. The girl gripped Lute's trenchcoat, making a fist, intent on keeping the rebel alive.

"You are not to chose who we kill and don't, get away from the human," the closest twin's voice was like a cold breeze. Both appeared to glow in the dark, with nothing but a deep shadow behind them, and the semi-light of the outside shining upon their white bodies. The effect made them seem immence and powerful as they stood almost completely motionless like statues, carved from ivory.

Lute's gaze was filled with her own blood. The voices of the twins and the girl were echoing far away, and covered mostly by a loud ringing in her ears. She tried to sit up, and felt the weight of the girl lessening as she tried. Yossi sat up, looking down at her for a moment, but quickly returned to twins, who's postures stiffened.

"Get away from her," one of them hissed.

"No! You can't kill her!" Yossi got to her feet and stood between the fallen rebel and the twins, stubbornly blocking them. She could hear the rebel panting, and grew uneasy as to whether she could keep the twins from her or not. Her head swam, she was still weak from being bashed in the head, but she knew the rebel had mistaken her for one of the twins, very sure.

Lute stood, swaying and somewhat stiff, cradling one arm which bled profusely, dripping dark blood upon the floor. Her coat sleeve was in tatters and heavy with blood from too many cuts and slices. Every part of her body was screaming for relief, as little was left without a wound. The twins had almost systematically brought her to ruins. As she stood, she was grateful that only the pain would last, and no scars to remind her of this horrible beating. She was trying to determine if she could run or not. She could hardly stand, thus she desparetly hoped the operator would use a phone that was close.

Her hopes were answered. Like a dream come true, a loud buzz broke the silence. A red light twinkled with the ring of the dens phone upon the wall just behind the twins. Everyone seemed to freeze, not even the whisper of a breath could be heard in the thick silence, broken only by the loud, lonely sound of the ringing telephone and the noise of wind and a sprinkling of rain outside.

So when the rebel finally made a run for it, Yossi was dazzled by the sudden movement and noise of panting breathes and the sound of muffled shoes on the carpet. Lute feigned in one direction and both twins went around Yossi, to circle and trap her, but the rebel pushed Yossi aside and went between them, heading directly for the telephone. She felt the twins right behind her, close and frightening entities, and lept, one of the twins grabbed her ankle, pulling her just short of the receiver, yet her finger knocked it free, and she fumbled to catch it, putting it against her ear. She escaped, bloody, bruised, and cut, but triumphant, even when failing her mission. It was a win, simply by surviving their terrible strength and might.

---

Yossi's breath was short and came slightly panicked as she stood, panting and watching the backs of the twins. They stood staring at the receiver as it swayed at the end of its cord like a pair of wolves who watched a rabbit disappear into it's burrow. She almost expected them to claw at the phone, tear it apart in their frenzy of anger, but instead they let it hang. One walked to their room, the other turned, burdening Yossi with his gaze. The open line beeped expectantly. The slowly drying blood left a red line from her hair line to her jaw, she was sporting more injury than the twins, who were completely unmarked from their opponent.

"Why did you want her alive?"

"Because she tried to save me before you two stole me away.." Yossi felt strong, defying them gave her stength, but as she watched him, she began to feel terrible and childish.

The twin walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, which momentarily offered a new light against the thick shadows, and Yossi finally realized that the groceries had been put away. He took out the lunchmeat and cheese and condiments, and then the bread, and slowly began making a sandwiche. Yossi approached the island and put her hands atop it, leaning silently, remembering the pain and stiffness in her limbs her waist.

The door was still partially fallen, it strained against the last hinge which threatened to seperate from the wall at any moment. From the opening, the soft patter of rain could be heard from outside. Blood still stained the carpet as a reminder of the short but violent battle. Only a few bullet holes marred the blue walls and Yossi remembered the neighbors, she wondered momentarilly if any would wake with new holes in their homes. Something told her that the magic of the Matrix would cover the ugly marks before any human eyes could ever glimpse the evidence.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small, strained voice.

The twin was quiet, precise and graceful even when making a simple sandwiche. It was almost like watching an art that he had mastered, despite the fact that he was only making a really late lunch. The eventful day had made her weak and emotional for a moment. She wanted to cry, to be a disgraceful heathen for a second, but she was too exhausted to exert herself any further. She sighed softly and rested her head on her folded hands, closing her eyes and listening to the twin work. The line of blood at the side of her face flaked away somewhat as it rested against her hand. She felt blessedly numb for the time being. When he finally finished, Yossi quickly ate at the table under the heavy gaze of the twin, who sat emotionless as if he were a hundred miles away. This time it didn't bother Yossi. The peace after their battle made her content as she enjoyed the small pleasure of finally eating. Yet again she was grateful that she had survived the day, but for now, her thoughts were at rest. She was drunk on the silence of the room and the food that she was eating. So it was an intrusion upon her quiet moment when the twin finally spoke.

"You said that you didn't want us to keep you in the dark anymore, so we won't," the twin stated simply, easily, as if it wasn't a treat for Yossi to ever get them to answer her questions. She stopped chewing, listening intently with bated breath. He paused for a moment, ensuring that she was alert.

"The next oppertunity for you to hack into the Matrix will be exactly seven years from tonight," he said this simply enough, as if he were announcing the time of day, and it was the first time that she had ever wanted to not hear their voices, for them to give up some secret of theirs, to qualm her restless spirit.

---

Endnote/ omg cliffhanger. For such a short chapter, it's been a long day for Yossi..


	6. Chapter 6

Beginning Note/

---

A whole peaceful month had gloriously passed since Lute's attack upon the apartment. Yossi's body had healed with no unwanted afteraffects, and for the most part been rather happy and content with her current life. The twins weren't exaggerating when they said that they wouldn't be able to stay in one place for long. The whole-peaceful-month had been a very long one at that, marked by much travel and car-jacking. Though a curious fact came to face when Yossi noticed that they were never more than a few miles from the metro, as they circled it like hawks, jumping from hotel to apartment to motel and one very long night tossing and turning in the back seat of a sports car. It seemed to her that they were loathe to be far from the complex little town. She had yet to ask them of their affinity with the city and it burned to be brought to topic. However, that was a small part of her thoughts compared to the twins announcement on that one night. Morning and evening, afternoon and midnight, her head buzzed with that spec of news. She would sigh and cross her arms, let her head fall back as she thought upon it. The twins would only cast her a glance now and then, then return to whatever had interested them for the moment. Driving the cars, watching the scenery, or simply sitting on the couches or chairs, the sparse furniture of a motel or the homely decorations of an apartment. They had spoken only on rare occassions and that had cost Yossi a lot of nagging.

For now they had taken to a common hotel, a very large step up from the road side cottages that they had just left behind. Perhaps the twins knew that Yossi had missed their first hotel that had housed their computers with it's lush decorations, the place that they had left behind in a hail of bullets and one broken door, however, somehow she doubted they cared. Yossi was pleased nonetheless, though it of course was no match for their first. She let herself fall onto one of two beds in a room that acted as living room, bedroom, and kitchen. Though the kitchen was a simple miny refrigerator. The bathroom was at the back of the room, nothing particularly special. The whole place smelled distinctly of orange and chemicals, but that was preferred to the moldy stench of the place they had left behind. Sitting up abruptly after that very thought, Yossi layed claim to the bathroom, though it was never a fight with the twins, who both sat comfortably seated in the two plush recliners that were aimed at the television.

She melted under the cold spray of water from the shower head for a full hour, retreating from the bathroom with pruned fingertips. During her long, cleansing shower, a single thought was circling in her mind. She wanted to bring up the fact that her birthday was in two days. During her lonely stay in her very own apartment, she treated herself modestly. Extra special food for dinner and maybe some new toy. Last time it was large stuffed lion, the time before that was a new model of computer, who's release date coincided with her special day. She was curious as to their reaction. Would they be helpful for once? How could she possibly convince them to let her get something? More importantly, what did she need? It might be a burden to lug around a stuffed animal from place to place, and there was no way she could keep a computer, but maybe a laptop, though she never liked the contraptions.

A starch white towl was draped over her damp hair, rumpled and messy from when she had rubbed excess water away, and another towl larger towl encircle her body. She watched the twins as they idly watched her as she walked to sit on the bed closest to them. Did she look like she wanted something? Thinking quickly, the normal thing for her to do would be to lay back on a bed and watch the blank television screen. Nobody in the company ever watched t.v. it seemed. Instead she sat on the edge and peered curiously at the twins, who gazed right back, emotionless except for a tiny upward curve to their pale lips. They knew she was about to barrage them with some sort of chatter. Smart programs they were.

"I noticed on our way here there was a mall nearby.." she trailed off, awaiting some reaction, but nobody moved, so she continued uneasily, "and the day after tomorrow is my birthday, so.."

She waited, but they only watched her and her mood slowly turned sour. They could just give a nod or shake of the head like usual, but instead they simply watched her sitting there, soggy and dripping water upon a bed. She was feeling defeated, sighing loudly she layed back, scratching idly at her head with the towl, then pulling a flap over her face. She was dreadfully bored now, there was nothing to look forward for seven years except more lonely hotels. Maybe a horrible bloody attack by a rebel or an agent, and she probably wouldn't see the end of those seven years.

Somewhere in the middle of the day, food had been provided, but the stark smell of chemicals had burned away any remnants of an appetite. Her sullen mood, however, had probably killed it first, so the food was stashed away in the tiny refrigerator, forgotten till the next morning. Yossi ate ravenously at sunrise, surprising the twins into watching her through the whole ordeal. Periodically she would send them a venomous glare. This was the equivilant of her 'special dinner', a day early though it was.

After the breakfast show, the twins left the room, and Yossi was feeling the need to burn the energy. Shortly after they left, she followed, curious and stealthy. They walked, silent and graceful down several halls, heading for the exit. However, to her utter dismay, when they rounded a corner, she found that they had disappeared. She searched only halfheartedly for them, feeling that even if she returned to their trail, she would have to stop after they exited the bulding. Her wanderings eventually led her to a plush chair in the lobby of the hotel. She watched the coming and goings of the guests, immitating the twins utter stillness quite well. She watched them with their cool, indifferent expressions, usually a foot resting on the other knee and their hands either gripping the arm rests or folded in their laps. She was pleased with her rendition. Eyeing each entrant, she would study them like a hawk, or maybe wander what they were doing or where they were going for a short while until the next person came along to grab her attention.

Standing out like wolves amoung sheep, the twins strode easily through the sliding glass doors, their gazes instantly upon Yossi, who's attention was elsewhere. She had been watching a large family buying several rooms, they would be staying far from her and the twins. They were amazingly noisy, and had held her intrigue since they entered the hotel lobby almost ten minutes ago. It was early in the afternoon, she'd left their room on the trail of the twins almost four hours ago, and had occupied her chair for almost half of that time, so she was relieved when the twins slid into her view, their gazes somewhat questioning.

"Hey," she greeted them simply, wondering curiously if they recognized her copy-cat pose.

"Have you enjoyed yourself?" one them asked with a smirk.

Yossi shrugged and stood, realizing again that she was rather short, especially compared to them, standing only chest high, "it's better than the hotel room.."

They began a slow walk back to their room, and Yossi took the chance to talk. They were passing by the group of family members; no one watched the albino twins.

"So where did you guys go?"

"Out," said one of them, slightly ahead who's attention wandered to the large tropical water fall and the koi which swam in the pool they were passing close to.

"Well yeah..," Yossi began, ignoring the vague but obvious answer, "I mean what did you do?" she eyed the twin that answered, hoping he wouldn't attempt to exasperate her out of conversation.

"We were," the twin paused, peering down into the pool and at the koi who migrated to his shadow hungrily, "watching." He didn't seem like he'd elaborate unless Yossi pressed further. She turned to the other twin, who stood watching his brother and the fish below.

"Watching what? The sunrise? The people," she frowned, getting the twin's attention from his brother.

"For agents and rebels, for trouble so we know when we need to move, we thought that was obvious," the twin grinned, mischevious and purely irritating, eliciting an exasperated sigh from Yossi. She shrugged and turned back to watch the waterfall, the simulated mist rose from the tropical plants, which she guessed were rubber, and hid the speaker that played the chirrups and songs of several different types of exotic birds.

"We can go to the mall tomorrow, if that is what you want," the twin watching the koi spoke up after a pause. His hands were in his pockets and for a moment Yossi wondered if there was a coin he was planning on tossing into the pond hidden there. After a while, Yossi realized they probably didn't carry spare change.

"Alright," she said, rather surprised and off guard, but she grinned quickly, "thanks." She went and sat on the damp stone wall, her back to the waterfall and the strong scent of chemicals from the water filling her nose. The twin who hadn't come to watch the fish finally stepped up on the other side of Yossi, his curiousity, Yossi thought, must have gotten the better of him.

---

The white haze of morning seeped upon the eastern horizon, preparing for it's march up the dark night skies. A familiar prickling at the hairs on the back of Yossi's neck stirred her. She knew the origin of this familiar annoyence, she knew it came from two pairs of eyes, as usual hidden behind needless sunglasses. The cool gaze was heavy, she turned onto her other side to return it with a drowsy stare of her own. The twins were each perched in the t.v. chairs, watching her in the darkness. A dim glow revealed only the barest of outline from the heavy curtins. As usual, the bed showed no signs of use, neatly made and never touched except for the impression of her own body from when she layed back on it after taking her shower.

"Alright," she said thickly, agreeing to their silent persistance.

She sat up, yawning and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her feat still didn't touch the floor. She made her slow way to the bathroom, a morning routine of shower, teeth, and hair. No morning pruning for the day, only the usual. Walking out, she saw that the twins hadn't moved, though their attention was slowly returned as she opened the bathroom door, letting the yellow light out into the darkness of the room. The curtins glow had somewhat strengthened, casting a white outline on one side, while the bathrooms light made the rest of their bodies appear bland. Lighting effects upon the twins never ceased to amuse Yossi.

"The mall isn't open this early, I don't think.." Yossi stated after a yawn while stretching by grabbing her elbows above her head and arching her back. She could see her shadow in the glass of the twins sunglasses. She'd given up long ago requesting that they remove them when they were useless, and she certainly wasn't brave enough to try and surprise one and snatch them away. They were always alert to her presence, that task was marked impossible a while back.

"We thought a walk down to the waterfall would be nice," one of them stood, answering her, with his brother right behind him.

Yossi considered for a moment and shrugged her agreement, pleased enough to start for the door. One of the twins was already outside and the other waited for her pass him, closing the door without bothering to lock. They had nothing of interest packed away that Yossi knew of. The walk to the koi pond was down some large stairs, a theme of marble that made the whole place very bright and expensive looking. Marble and tropical scenery that was pleasant on the eyes, Yossi was certain that if the twins found a particarly bright area they would blend perfectly. There weren't many people awake and alive at this time of the morning, they passed only room service and maids and a few guests that looked dressed for important business. They were only swift ghosts at the corner of Yossi's tired eyes. She'd been wakened at this time of morning before, but she still didn't enjoy it. The twins seemed incapable of exhaustion, they were boundless in their energy. That was something Yossi envied far more than she'd ever admit.

Little more than an hour was spent with idle and useless talk, only elicited by Yossi. She spoke only on the topics of her other birthdays, things that she'd done for herself. It sounded to be the right subject, but oh so strained. The twins just weren't right for small talk, and she gave up after an hour. After standing alone in line for a large cone of ice cream, she returned to the odd pair and offered if either would want a lick. She grinned, she was right that they'd decline, but it was simply polite. The sun was well above the horizon as they all headed for the car they'd been driving for the past week and headed for the promised mall. A short drive and they entered a sparsely populated parking lot, taking an easy space near the entrance. It seemed only the elderly were up and walking through the halls along with workers opening their stores. Yossi had never felt so invisible, it was an odd feeling that made her stomach flutter with butterflies.

Still too early for any crowd, which Yossi clearly believed was planned, they strolled easily and in silence, broken only by the patter of their feet, the quiet conversations of the sparse mall-goers and the fountain still ahead of them. There wasn't anything specially eye-catching yet, but Yossi was persistant. She would enjoy this day, she decided with determination. But before any of that, she would need to check into the bathroom. These were located in a serparate hall, meant for privacy and easy acess to a couple other shops backdoors for maintence. Like most public bathrooms, a lingering damp stench plagued the clean, shiny tiles. Handsoap oozed onto the vanity, adding a pungent cherry blossom taste to the air. No one was occupying the stalls, so as she walked to the back of the room, the only sound was her shuffling movement and the tinkling music of the mall, meant to make the large halls feel more comforting and friendly. After all was done, Yossi slid the latch back and met the face of someone painfully familiar.

Lute stood there, patiantly awaiting Yossi to exit the stall. The automatic flush of the toilet startled Yossi, a small yelp was drowned out by the loud flush and gurgle of the water.

"Did you kill..?" Yossi's eyes were impossibly wide as she stared, slightly dazed, up at the rebel, who shook her head silently.

"Not yet, but you are going to bring them to me, so that I can.." A crooked grin twisted her face, she didn't seem as friendly as Yossi had thought she was. Lute steered her out of the ladies bathroom and down the hall to the fireexit, away from the twins and other mall-goers. Yossi peered back over her shoulder and up at Lute, who pushed the door open easily from behind her small frame. Lute wasn't very tall herself, which made Yossi feel her short height even more. The metal stairs clanged loudly as they climbed upwards towards a dark door, which led into the bright sunlight of the clear day. Yossi squinted as she was led outwards into the middle of the rooftop. Several black birds were frightened into flight as Lute and Yossi stood there in the warm light of the sun, which was growing more and more uncomfortable.

"Are you going to take me out of the Matrix?" Yossi quickly found the courage to ask the silent rebel another of her important questions that had been burning inside her mind for quite some time.

Lute had set her gaze upon the fire exit door and didn't stir when Yossi spoke up. She was as intent as hawk watching a burrow full of rabbits who seemed starved. Yossi was standing in front of the rebel, her breathing coming and going faster than she realized. Panic was roiling in her stomach, sweat was dripping down her spine, but she didn't realize these things till the silence was drawn out, and then quickly smashed when the door on the rooftop burst open.

The familiar click of the hammer of a gun startled Yossi as it was pulled back right at the girls ear. The pale figures of the twins were frozen in the doorway, but they didn't phase into their ghostly forms as Yossi was expecting. That was because this time the gun wasn't pointed at them. Yossi's eyes quickly flitted to the side, where the dark barrel of the gun was silently poised at her temple. It didn't look friendly, she had never been this close to gun, and now she was thankful that the twins favored their blades. She flinched and her breathing halted all together.

"If you phase, I will kill her," was the sharp command of the rebel. The twins seemed to glare, but they were too far away for Yossi to really see the expressions upon their faces. Another gun was drawn, and this time promptly pointed at one of the twins over Yossi's other shoulder. A sickening fear flooded into her stomach as she watched their forms, standing clearly out from the dark shadows of the stairwell behind them. The heavy door was propped open by one of their boots. Yossi was certain it wouldn't affect them too much if she was killed, couldn't they find another hacker? There were only a couple in her elitest league, but she was sure they could find them. Emotion drained from her face, but her eyes were dark and shiney.

The hammer was cocked on the second gun, it fired with an explosion that rattled Yossi's teeth. Her eyes widened in fear and surprise, and when she felt coherent again, she was indeed confused. One of the twins was sporting a new color, something entirely out of place. Crimson red was staining his arm. He didn't phase to dodge the bullet. Yossi's stomach clenched into a painful knot, the invincible programs could bleed.

Yossi suddenly reached up and grabbed the rebel's arm. Lute had been amazed that she had finally wounded one, she didn't know exactly what to think when the gun that had shot the twin was wrenched from her gasp. Her eyes widened when the girl twisted around and pulled the trigger, exploding a bullet straight into her chest, and quickly several more afterwards.

Running back to the stair well, Yossi left the rebel on the ground, but carried the gun with her. The white forms of the twins were standing in the doorway, both unharmed. Yossi's run was halted halfway. There wasn't any blood anymore. Both were standing there patiently waiting for her to walk down the stairs. One of them was grinning, the twin who had been shot in the arm. Yossi began tentatively walking towards them, her eyes scanning for any sign of the blood that had once stained the immaculate white sleeve of the trench coat. Her expression must have relayed her confusion, the other twin was smirking as well. She quickly grew irritated at their magic trick.

"What happened to the blood," Yossi frowned, still awkwardly holding the gun at her side.

They were silent for a moment, Yossi figured they were enjoying her obvious confusion, "it is time to get off the roof," one of them answered, then turned and walked down the stairwell, the other, who was still holding the door open for Yossi, motioned her through, still sporting an enigmatic grin. With a huff, the girl walked through and didn't object when the twin relinquished her of the gun, appearing a little lost and forelorn and still oh so confused. Although it did make sense that a computerized program wouldn't bleed like the rest of the humans. This alone brought on a hail of other questions, which she pushed to the side in hopes of forgetting about it. She knew by now that her inquires were rarely rewarded with an answer. From the beginning, she eventually learned to stop asking.

As usual, she could feel the weight of the twin's gaze upon the back of her head as she descended the stairs. She didn't know what to think so far. She'd killed the rebel, one of the good guys. She fought the Agents and ran from the others, neither good nor bad. She was in the class of the Twins, still a mystery that evaded her knowledge. The stairwell echoed with the patters of their footsteps, punctuated by the metallic clang of the door opening, revealing a perfectly normal world. The fight between good and something else had went unnoticed, leaving the mall unchanged. She stepped to the side and watched the last ghostly twin emerge, peering at them expectantly. Only one looked down at her, the other's gaze seemed to be searching for some sign of more rebels or agents, yet so far found nothing threatening.

"Should we leave?" Yossi's voice came with a sigh.

"If you want, I'm sure we'll be fine here for the time being," the twin that had been scanning for something answered her. Yossi shrugged in responce, and proceeded to walk through the hall of bathrooms and back to the shops. Her dogged determination she had started out with was waning. Who could honestly, at her age, feel the same before and after killing someone, let alone someone that you believed was going to save you? Their strolling through the mall was punctuated about every five minutes, when Yossi would stop looking at the toe of her shoes, to the two twins on either side of her with a confused and strange expression which mostly went unnoticed by both. She sighed more often and wavered in her posture. At times she seemed able to pretend to be normal, at others it appeared as if she would break in two.

Finally came the food court, which Yossi was led to unknowingly. Only the smell of the various foods woke her from her then state of semi-conscienceness. Her eyes were big, dark and watery when she noticed she was standing in the line of an Asian buffet. She glanced questioningly up at the twins, still standing on opposite sides of her. Both seemed to be peering straight ahead into an alternate dimention.

Yossi wasn't particularly sure if she could stomach any type of food at the moment. Her mind kept returning to the several large holes she had blown into the chest and abdomen of Lute. The blood that coated the cement behind her, the puddle that she landed in was even more vivid now than it had been then. Her imagination was running wild. What if she had aimed a little higher and had blown Lute's hand to tiny meaty pieces?

"You dwell too often on the past, Yossi."

The voice startled her out of her reverie. She jumped, sucking in a lungfull of air.

"How would you know? You do that..stuff..so readily and relentlessly.." Yossi said with a voice thick and almost paniced. She had thought back to the twins masacre of Dice and his comrades, thinking nothing of what the twin had just stated.

"Death will quickly lose it's luster for you, we promise," it was the twin on the opposite side that talked this time, his words quickly brought Yossi's gaze to the side of his face that she could see. Her own expression was pure astonishment. He believed she would kill again? They were the fighters, not she. Her hair whipped back and forth as she fervently shook her head in disagreement.

"You're wrong.." she said forcefully, covering her face with her hands so she wouldn't have to shake her head anymore.

The line had disappeared and they were ready to take their orders when Yossi forced herself to face the world again. A groan was working it's way through her throat, so one of the twins ordered her food for her and she was led to an empty table by a white hand at her back. In a pleasant state of apathy, she numbly ate her rice and beef and broccli while the twins watched with what she believed was mild amusement.

By the time she dropped the chop sticks she was feeling a little better.

"Why do you think i'll have to kill another person?" her eyes were studying a few pieces of rice that had been pushed from her plate onto the cool plastic of the dark blue table they were sitting around.

"Techniquely, you won't have to unless we aren't around," one of them said with a smirk, "we aren't your guardians, we won't be constantly by your side for the next several years."

There was that word again. "Years". It was ominous and looming in Yossi's mind and momentarily distracted her. Besides that, she had faced several agents by herself, though she was certain she'd be dead if the twins hadn't had emaculate timing. She couldn't fool herself like that. And it wasn't exactly 'facing several agents'; she had ran like hell. Perhaps they were thinking of giving her a gun? She didn't want to question it out loud. Instead, she sighed and pushed the fallen rice around with a chop stick.

"Let's leave, i'm tired now..," Yossi rose and disposed of her trash and followed the twins all the way to a new car they must have just decided to jack. This was a felon she had gotten used to a while ago. Murder was still fresh on her list. Through the whole silent ride, she never noticed that they were en route to a new hotel, not better nor worse than the last. Her mind was pleasantly empty and she only blinked in surprise at the new building, though her interest quickly faded. She, in a rather puppy-like way, followed at the heels of the twins all the way to the top floor, to the more expensive rooms.

Upon stepping inside, she could only produce a small grin of thanks. The decorations seemed to have been arranged by a professional, very much like their first hotel. The twins didn't watch her as normal as she walked about till she found the bed, in which she quickly fell atop it. This bed wasn't like the others, stiff and over-used, smelling of bleach. The pillows were plush and promised a comfortable nights rest. She rolled over onto her stomach and tossed the decortive pillows away till she found the two softest, in which she quickly nestled her head between them. She heard one of the twins closing the curtins, but she was too tired to thank him, and sleep quickly took her into his arms.

End Note/


	7. Chapter 7

Beginning Note/ Went on a nice whole month vacation, returned to writing on August first, while suffering from a nasty sunburn.. -peels a bit of skin off her nose-

Seven years she would have to tag along with the programs. It was like a prison sentence when she thought about it. Yet so far, it wasn't all that bad. Five of the allotted time had passed, not slowly, nor quickly. She learned to watch for signs of the Matrix at work, in fact she learned more than she had orginally expected. She'd seen several glimpses of rebels and even a few potentials, and she'd encountered more than she'd like of the agents. Twice she had been near death at their hands. Beaten so badly, bloody and bruised and even shot three different times in, thankfully, none in lethal places. Her heart beat faster when she thought about it. Where before she had nightmares of scary creatures in her closet, now she dreamed of agents and more often than not, the death of Lute. She would awaken, panting loudly, to find one, or both, of the twins in her doorway, most likely summoned by the assortment of noises she had uttered whilst in the midst of the dream.

The twins hadn't changed in a single way. Tall, albino, and silent, they still rarely answered her questions, and when they did, it usually wasn't in such a way that she was satisified. Like the Chesire cat they were. At times she would entertain herself with that thought, for it was the most amusement she had while in the company of the twins. They apparently had no sense of humor, except what they got from her misfortune. Sadistic ones they were.

Yossi now had several different types of guns she carried along with her from place to place. A Browning was almost always somewhere hidden on her body. The twins were right, death had lost it's prominance and she had no problem pulling the trigger. Only a few people had ever been killed by her bullet and only two other rebels. She had yet to ever destroy an agent, however. She was certain it was impossible. This didn't bother her so much, however, the twins were always there, except on those two near-death occassions.

---

For five years Yossi had survived on take-out Chinese and plain sandwiches. She hated cooking, and didn't even think about asking one of the twins to make dinner, and so her menu was very limited. Breakfast was usually had at the hotel if they provided, in which she would happily rise early enough just for that. And the current hotel they were inhabiting had obliged to take the wake-up call Yossi had scheduled at seven a.m. She slowly dressed, took note that the twins had left sometime earlier, and followed the scent of donuts, muffins, and eggs. A sparse dinner the night before had left her stomach aching. Consequently, she was ravenous when she made it to the breakfast area. A few people found her entertaining enough to watch, these must have been tourists, getting an early rise to miss the morning traffic. Crowded around them were their yawning children who prodded their eggs with their silver forks. They must have been too exhausted to watch as Yossi wolfed down her several donuts, two plates of eggs, and finally nibbled at her muffin and left the lone biscut only half eaten. Finally she sat back and peered over the shoulders of her audience at the morning news on the t.v. in the sitting area. The normal world is what it represented, and how drawl and boring it seemed now. Honestly it had bored her from the beginning, she rarely even watched t.v. when she lived in her tiny apartment, and only watched cartoons before then. She was seventeen now, and hardly missed the animated features of what little childhood she had had.

Stretching, she rubbed her full stomach and noisly pushed her chair from the small round table and threw her trash away on her route back to the hotel room. She didn't make it further than the lobby when she caught sight of the twins walking in and heading in her direction. She faintly smiled and waited for them, by the time they made it to her side she quietly burped and yawned loudly.

"They have a nice breakfast here, you guys should try it," she had never stopped asking them to eat, even when they repeatedly declined. It was just something to fill the void of conversation. Despite her quiet disposition, she had grown used to the company of the twins. Normally in a crowd she would sit quietly, it wasn't hard to over look her all together. "I enjoyed it, at least.." she said while sighing contentedly.

"We need to leave early today," the twins statement surprised Yossi, and she remembered the tourist family in the breakfast room. She didn't question their decision though.

Instead she turned quiet and stood behind both in the back of the elevator, where she couldn't repress a yawn. After eating she was typically drowsy. The elevator chimed, alerting it's occupants that they had arrived at their destination, where a small family was awaiting to enter. The twins passed by unnoticed, followed by Yossi. The family stepped into the elevator without a second glance. Yossi had grown used to it, and preferred this treatment over anything after she'd given it only a little thought.

Walking into the room, Yossi half expected for something unpleasant to be waiting, yet everything was in it's place, perfectly normal. She couldn't help but wonder about what brought them to want to leave so early. Typically they at least waited till the middle of the day to find a new hotel, sometimes deeper into the city, other times nearly into the next county. A couple of the best hotels they'd stayed in multiple times already, not that Yossi would ever complain.

Walking over to the rooms closet, she picked out the only piece of clothing she ever kept, the rest were brought to her by the special key the twins long ago entrusted to her pocket. The gesture wasn't lost on Yossi. Out of the closet, she pulled the twins second gift, a long coat, whose hem only reached to her knees. Monotone grey with a multitude of buckles, it was industrial and stylish and made her feel as if she were an apprentice to the twins. She couldn't surpress a small, warm smile when she laid her hands upon the shiny material. She always wore it when they were out heading for a new place to stay, but often in the mornings she would slip it on when the Twins were gone and wander about the house in her best impersonations of the brothers. Once or twice the ritual was held in the nude. Next was the small shoulder bag that held the few guns she kept, which fell comfortably at her side.

Over the years she schooled herself into withholding the more menial questions, but this time she felt the question was warrented, "is there a special reason why we are leaving earlier than normal?" she said as she slipped an arm into the last empty sleeve.

Both were waiting for her to don her coat, watching her patiently by the door, "today they are closer than normal. The scanning programs caught our trail sooner than we expected," though the tone of his voice was placid and monotone, the twin's words were worrisome.

"Does that mean that agents will be coming?" Yossi said as she walked towards the door.

"We don't know, perhaps. The scanners might not even care that we are here," the twin nearest the door said as he walked through, Yossi following and the last right behind, closing the door and following at Yossi's heels.

A new car was parked in the drop off area right in front of the lobby's entrance, a new model that gave the idea that it could drive faster than any other model of sports car. Yossi was fond of these, especially the leather scent of the interior. She climbed behind the passenger seat and listened as her coat squelched against the back seat. As they pulled from the hotel, a large black s.u.v squeeled its tires as they peeled into the parking area. After a stop that nearly sent the vehicle rolling onto the cars parked neatly in a line, five people in nearly matching overcoats hopped out and sprinted to the building. Yossi watched this with a curious eye, yet the twins simply ignored it, turning in the opposite direction that the s.u.v. came from.

"I suppose that would be why the programs found our trails so quickly," Yossi spoke more to herself, not expecting an answer.

"No, they had been on the lookout for us, those rebels are just going to get a surprise," the driver seated twin peered into the rearview mirror at the quickly disappearing hotel with a crooked grin. Yossi only caught a glimpse of his expression as she turned around after watching through the back window for any agents on the rebels tail. She faintly grinned as well, amused at the morbid sense of humor of the program more than the situtation.

---

The hotel was less than favorable. They had the most expensive room available and it still failed to satisfy even a poupers dreams. The air outside was cool, winters breath was on the air. Yossi stepped from a steamy bathroom, a towl around her body and another used to rub the excess water from her hair. The twins were watching a dog in the parking lot, it's breath steaming on the frigid air. Goose bumps marched down Yossi's skin as she dug into her old pants pocket for the key to use on the small closets door. One turned when he heard the click and watched as she grabbed a plain shirt and loose pants and then stooped for under garments. Yossi felt the familiar weight of his hidden eyes and returned the gaze, curious.

When he said nothing she returned to the bathroom and dressed. After donning her new clothes, she accompanied the twins at their table, placed by the window. Both were yet again watching the scenery. From the window, most color was bleached and the dog had wandered elsewhere. It wasn't a nice view in the least. The sky seemed polluted, though it promised that the cleansing snow would soon follow. Yossi sighed at this, and yet again one of them turned their attention upon her.

"Is there something I should know? Have the scanners followed us again?"

"We won't be able to stay the night."

Yossi rose a brow at this and nodded slowly, "ok then. Do you know why they are so hard on us now?"

One of them shook their head, his white locks falling over his shoulder, both of them watched her closely. Yossi shifted in her seat, the wood feeling more and more uncomfortable as she sat under their gaze.

She cleared her throat, "when will we leave then?"

"It'd be best if we left an hour from now."

Yossi peered out the window and ran a hand through her still dripping hair, missing a smirk from one of the twins while his brother turned his gaze to the window as well. Near the glass, the temperature was at it's coolest in the whole room. Goosebumps rose the hair on her arms and the back of her neck, yet there was no where else to sit and she loathed to get comfortable on the bed. She was restless after rising early this morning and the chair was doing a good job at keeping her from feeling drowsy.

The silence had never felt so awkward. Her hair dried faster than normal as she ran her hands through it and fidgeted. The wooden chair squeaked and groaned as she repositioned herself over and over. Finally, with a loud sigh she stood, her hand in her hair yet again.

"I..have to use the bathroom," she pushed the chair back to the table and did as she said, only realizing that she didn't actually have to use it when she got to the door. Her hand was on the cool wood of the bathroom entrance when a shadow over came her. She blinked, confused, and felt as if she would choke on her heart when she felt the gaze upon the back of her head. She slowly turned, not surprised to see one of the twins standing much too closely to her. She couldn't see over his shoulder, but after peering around him, Yossi could see his brother idly peering out the window, unperturbed.

Yossi shrank into the door, "what?" her voice felt smaller than herself compared to the ivory program. Though he was silent, he didn't keep her in the dark.

The twin reached for her, putting a pale hand upon the side of Yossi's face, tilting her chin upwards after Yossi had suddenly found his coat buttons very intriguing. Another hand snaked its way behind her back, finding the curve, which she quickly arched as if she would escape his arm by moving closer to his body. He lifted Yossi till she was just the right height and pressed her against the door. Unfamiliar butterflies invaded Yossi's stomach as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her gaze fastened upon the brother, who sat just the same, appearing a pale statue and out of place in the dingy hotel room. An arm found it's way around the twins neck, the other upon his chest. Her breath came fast and warm and she wasn't surprised that his was frigid. He leaned for her lips and Yossi bumped her head against the bathroom door, realizing again how solid it was.

The twin grinned, his face so close that for a moment Yossi believed she would see his eyes behind the sunglasses. Yet abruptly, he dropped her. Yossi steadied herself by gripping his shoulders, but he left her there, still standing so close to the door that she was afraid it would fall in. She watched as the program sat once again at the table, in the lone chair that she had just vacated. As his gaze followed his brothers, Yossi escaped into the bathroom, and would stay there, sitting upon the toilet lid for the full hour they had scheduled.

---

A knock on the bathroom door alerted Yossi that it was time to go. She felt weak when she opened the door, and foolish for hiding for so long. She followed one of the twins out the door, and all the way to the same car. Everything was normal again and for a moment she considered the possibility that she had imagined the scenerio in her head. She could be very creative when she needed to be. But she hadn't bothered thinking of the twins in such a way. If she had, she would have certainly felt awkward, just like she did now as she watched the backs of the twin's heads. She barely surpressed the frustrated sigh.

A new apartment, barely in better condition than the place they had left behind. She looked it over, then sat upon the dusty couch, feeling sullen and misplaced all of a sudden. Shrugging the coat off, she dropped the bag that held her weapons upon the floor at her feet, which fell with a muffled thump. She yawned again and let her head rest back upon the couch. The large window by the front door let in grey light, which fell upon her side that faced it. The blank t.v. wasn't even mildly amusing, yet she peered at it nonetheless.

A quick shadow crossed the window suddenly. Yossi blinked and turned her head just the slightest when an identical one flashed across the window again. The blinds were down yet opened, and Yossi crossed the short space between the window and couch to pull one of the dusty plastic shutters down. The twins were there and pulling her away from the window when a bullet blew the door's lock to pieces. Yossi stumbled back, trying to get away but only falling into the twins body that held her. He pushed her behind the small t.v. as an agent kicked the door with one other right behind him. Guns were drawn and shot several times in the twins direction as they crossed the room, phasing and easily dodging the bullets.

The couch wasn't far from the t.v., so her bag with the guns were near. A fight with agents wasn't something to become tangled in, but she didn't plan on fighting, just escaping. She'd learned quickly that running from a fight that included agents was the best alternative.

The twins had gotten close enough to use their razors and the agents dropped their guns, trading them for hand to hand combat. Both were engrossed in the battle and Yossi took the chance to roll over to the bag and sprint out of the splintered door. She quickly remembered the first time she had vaulted a door to escape agents, only that time there were plenty more at her heels. The apartment was on the second floor in the middle of the building, she turned left, crossing the window when a bullet smashed a small hole in the glass, barely missing her. The agents were attempting to follow her. She looked over her shoulder as one shouldered his way through the window, one of the twins leaping right after. Both toppled over the railing. Yossi's eyes widened and she would have stopped if the second pair hadn't made their way through the door. The twin sliced his back, causing the agent to turn and fight him back.

Yossi stumbled down the stairs, cautious to see if the agent had survived the fall. The car wasn't far from the stairs, but as she searched for it, she could see both agent and twin were battling right near. The agent hadn't noticed her yet. Fumbling for just a moment with her bag, she drew the browning, aimed and fired. The twin phased and the bullet hit the agent in the neck. Yossi quickly dived behind the nearest car. The twin and agent were adjacent on the other side of the small parking lot.

The agent fell and jerked about till he transformed into a young man. The twin peered up at his brother, who lept over the railing and sprinted for the car, Yossi followed his example. The agent was at their heels, but was too late as Yossi barely made it into the car before they peeled away. The agent unsuccessfully fired at the car, but with his comrad fallen, he simply walked away.

---

They were driving well past dark, far from the city. Never had Yossi been in this direction. Only when they were in the most danger did the twins venture this far, though Yossi was certain they had gone into similiar regions. It seemed to have been the upper middle class area, for those who wanted privacy that lived here. Techniquely, it was like the city with biggers yards and fewer neighbors. Yossi found it a bit sad and lonely, but was happy to see that the newest apartment was favorable.

The loss of Yossi's overcoat plagued her mind the rest of the night. She held her head in her hands at the dinner table with a half-heartedly chewed upon sandwich below her chin. The twins seemed unconcerned as they sat on opposite ends of the couch. Yossi's back was turned to them, she hadn't forgotten that morning in the least.

When sleep came, it was only after much tossing and turning. She had taken the master bedroom with it's king size bed, decorated in hues of pale green and dark blue. The room had it's own bathroom, and the first time she visited it in the early morning hours, she couldn't help the memory the dark wooden door stirred. Bathroom doors had a whole new meaning.

Though she had trouble falling asleep, once she was deep in it's recesses, she slept for quite a long while. It was hunger that woke her in the middle of the afternoon. Both brothers were present, seated at the dining table. Both sets of eyes turned to her when she walked in, clad still in her pajamas. The kitchen was pleasantly fully furnished, and she idly pondered when they had gotten the groceries. She had never accompanied them when they fetched her necessities, but the image it conjured never failed to make her smile.

Bright light made her squint when she opened the door and pulled the tea from the depths of the refrrigorator. Setting it upon the table, she rummaged into the cupboard to search to see if cereal had been provided. As she went to close the wooden door, a familiar presence was at her side. All the same afflicitions overcame her. A hand on her shoulder led her to the island, another was at her back. The tea was pushed aside and the twin lightly touched her chin as she was lent back. She gripped the island for support. The twins hand kept the corner of the island from pressing into her, cradling her against his body. Yossi's eyes closed and her head tilted upwards, her hair brushed the counter top. The butterflies tickled her stomach as she felt the twins icy breath upon her neck. He felt different this time, perhaps it was the same brother that sat at the table peering out the window this time. Were they taking turns?

Yossi's breath caught in her throat when she felt his lips grinning against her skin. It wasn't a kiss, he was playing. Her eyes opened when he lifted her up and left her, she watched him, confused and surprised like the first time. His brother was at the door, a grin upon his lips as he watched his brother approaching, leaving Yossi alone in the kitchen.

"We'll be back shortly," he said as he opened the door and walked through. Yossi glared lightly then went to making her cereal, feeling awkward yet again.

As she sat at the dining table, emotionlessly eating her very late breakfast, she thought that she was certain she wasn't going crazy and imagining their adventerous ways. Were they exploring her? Surely they didn't often accompany a human for so long. It had been five years, she never bothered to ask if they had humans often for companionship. She was quite sure that if she did, no answer would be returned. She quietly cleaned the milk from her bowl and returned that and the spoon back to their places.

It was only ten minutes afterwards that the twins had returned. She watched closey as they walked in, and beside her was deposited a large bag. Yossi eyed it closely before peering in. Whatever it was, tissue paper was wrapped gingerly about it. Peering upwards, both twins were standing there, yet while she was emptying the sack of it's contents one had sat in the recliner where he would view her with a foot resting upon the other knee.

An indentical coat to the one she had left behind in the last apartment was pulled from the sack. Yossi's eyes lit up as she stood and put it on. She grinned and thanked them profusely, then sighed and sat back down, the last standing twin sat on the opposite end of the couch. There was silence till Yossi decided that then would be the best time to ask a question.

"So...how..Have you kept many..humans like me..like this?" she knew she hadn't worded it right, she blamed her nervousness about asking such a strange question.

"You speak as if you think you were our pet," one of them said with a strange smile.

"You..know what I mean," Yossi replied with a glare casted away from them both, her face warming.

"Then no, we don't keep company with humans, it has only been you," his brother answered, the twin sitting with her on the couch. Yossi knew he must have had the same smile on his face.

"Why, were you becoming jealous?" he purred, watching her curiously.

"No, I was just asking," Yossi spoke quickly, stuttering just a bit as she quickly returned the gaze of the twin sitting on the recliner. He grinned like a cat back at her, Yossi was certain he needed little fangs to complete the look.

"I'm sure you were," he said, still grinning broadly, folding his hands in his lap.

Yossi was outraged to say the least, taken aback by his juvenile implications and she knew anything else she would say would only amuse him further. She wasn't the twelve year old they had kidnapped anymore. She wouldn't be chased back to her room and let them enjoy a little victory. She stood then, the coat making her feel a little braver she believed, and stalked to the reclining twin, who watched her, obviously intrigued. She could have slapped the smug expression off his face, but believed that that was exactly what he wanted. Instead, she gripped the arms of the chair and bent to steal a kiss.

She was surprised when he opened his mouth to take her's instead. His hands unfolded and grabbed her waist, pulling her atop him. She climbed into the chair, her legs fitting neatly on either side of him. She cupped his ivory cheeks, then let her hands slide till she could run them into his coat, hugging the pale program close. It wasn't as odd as she thought it might have been, kissing the twins who were just part of the Matrix. But her mind didn't stay long on that topic, his hands quickly distracted her as they ventured over her body.

Never did she have the chance to experience anything relatively close to even a kiss. There was never the oppertunity, and so she was kept innocent. Now that she thought about it, perhaps the twins were the only outlet for those pent up emotions. It was the obvious choice, after all. She wouldn't worry herself about the techinquel things, instead she simply enjoyed the twin's free roaming hands.

She was situated in a position that she couldn't see the brother. It bothered her somewhat, and she wasn't in the mood to be distracted. Her heart was racing and not enough air was reaching her lungs, so she returned her hands to his cheeks and held his head still while she pulled away, resting her forehead upon his. He grinned as Yossi turned to peer over her shoulder at his brother, who turned his head just slightly to gaze back with a grin identical to his busy brothers. His attention had been elsewhere, so Yossi returned, pleased to have known that much, to her endeavors.

---

End Note/ I suppose programs do go in heat. :D Perhaps I should get my computer a mate.


	8. Chapter 8

Beginning Note\ There's some secks in this chapter. 3

---

Winter had stolen the land from it's once brilliant days. The red and orange leaves had turned to dust, replaced by the cadavers of the trees. A cold, steely grey city was left, a sprinkling of snow as icing coating the city slowly. People could be seen walking the streets swiftly, wrapped in their coats and scarves as they shivered on their way to work. Snow plows had left the roads a dark river between the icy buildings, piles of snow driven up to either edge. Away from the inner city, most of the snow was left in place, clean, simple, and pure and very much a hazard. Yossi trundled through, her snow boats heavily clogging through, nearly slipping off with each difficult pace. A bag of groceries was at her side as she made her way back to the hotel. With a fear of driving, possibly derived from the swift and dangerous vehicular escapes piloted by the twins, she settled for the simple pleasure of walking or taking the bus.

Huffing loudly, she drug herself up to the hotel lobby and to a large and elaboratly designed elevator, which chimed open after a minute. In the shiney, reflective interior, she could see herself, her red nose and cheeks peeking out from between a large scarf and a beany pulled low to her eyebrow. Snow was slowly melting on top of her head and shoulders. She felt impossibly damp and in dire need of a hot bath to warm her frigid bones. Drowsily, she heaved the bag of groceries up once more as the elevator doors slid open, her reflection torn in two as they parted smoothly.

It was difficult to move her quickly stiffening limbs to exit the elevator. Their room seemed so far down the hall, when it was only half of the way, an illusion surely created from her exhaustion. She groaned quietly and sauntered onwards, the cozy warmth of the hotel not doing much to ease her tired body. When she finally made it to their room, she paused at the door, still holding the bag, she leaned her forehead against the door to catch her breath. It felt cool against her slowly warming skin.

The door opened while she was still lent against it. She gasped and jumped back. One of the twins stood there smirking at her.

Sighing, she frowned at him, "it's cold outside," she said, then walked towards him intending to push him aside.

When he didn't move, she scowled, feeling more and more agitated. Most of the time they tended to be difficult and a little sadistic, the rest of them was all mystery, something that irritated Yossi quite well. The twin still smirked down at her. He appeared like an immovable ivory wall that was keeping Yossi from her steamy tub of water. She was suddenly feeling desperate for any form of relaxation, if only he would move.

"Ok, what is it? I'm really tired, ya know?" Yossi glared up at him, determined to not get too annoyed when all she wanted to do was enjoy a bath.

Surprising Yossi, he reached down and grabbed the bag of groceries from her. She hadn't noticed how heavy it had been till she was relieved from it. The twin's expression turned from a smirk to a cocky grin, in which he promptly turned and left Yossi to only follow in his wake. She left the entrance of the hotel room and crossed through the living room, passing by the other twin, who she had a feeling was probably smirking as well.

Trying her best to ignore this all, she headed straight for the bathroom and stripped while she ran the water as warm as she could handle it.

---

The bathroom was dark except for the soft yellow of a decorative light above the bathtub. Yossi had a warm washcloth pressed over her eyes, her head lent back against the tub as she did her best to rid her mind of all thoughts and completely and utterly relax, relieving her muscles of all tension. It was more difficult than it sounded. Her mind kept lapsing back to the most troublesom thoughts. Two more years and she would have to hack the Matrix for the twins. She was intensly worried about what would happen after that. The life she had before seemed impossible to return to. She was a potential to the rebels, would they take her after she had killed three of them? She slowly sank into the water, the edges of the washcloth soaked up more warmth as she held her breath under the water. Beneath the washcloth, a line had appeared between her eyebrows as her expression mirrored the troubles inside her mind. She tilted her head till her mouth was above the water and took a breath of air, letting it out slowly.

Icy lips pressed against hers. Yossi flinched, causing the once still water to ripple. A cool hand tilted her face upwards more and the twin's tounge flicked against her lips. Dipping his arm into the water, he wrapped it around Yossi's waist and she was slowly pulled from the water. She tilted her head back, balancing the washcloth against her eyes. The twin carried her across the bathroom to the only part of the wall that was bare, and balanced her there, her back pressed against the cool surface. Finally the washcloth fell as the twin kissed her again. She brought her hands to either side of his face, smoothing them over his skin till she wrapped her arms around his neck.

The twin's lips moved from her mouth to her jaw, where he nibbled just a bit till he moved on to her neck. Yossi was breathing heavily by then, she tilted her head back against the wall, her eyes only half open. She could see over his head that most of his clothes had been discarded, on route to the bathtub. His silver coat was closest to the door, following that were his boots, then socks, then shirt, all that was left to be adorned in was pants. Something deep inside her trembled with excitement and she pressed herself closer to him. In the past month that the twins had been advancing upon her, she had yet to lose her innocence.

Her cheeks felt warm now, she could feel his intentions through the fabric of his pants as his hands ran down her back, tickling her spine till he reached her buttocks. His teeth grazed her shoulder and Yossi pressed into him further, her fingers massaging into his back. His tongue traced the pulse in her neck, the beat of her heart had quickened till she felt as if she had been running miles before then. She was flushed when he peered at her, her cheeks had deepened to a shade of pink as she returned the gaze with drowsy eyes. With only the dim light over the tub behind him, he appeared to glow. Her stomach was full with the flutter of butterflies as one of his hands moved up her waist to the side of her breast. He dipped his head once more to lightly kiss her nipple. Yossi's eyes closed and she bent her head to rest atop his.

He surprised her when he pulled away, "stand," he said simply.

Yossi blinked, confused, but did as he said. She was much shorter than the twin, he could only kiss her forehead without bending at all. For a second, Yossi believed he would completely undress. Her eyes widened for a moment with that thought. But then he knelt to his knees and at once the twin's intentions were clear. She spread her legs just a bit with the twin's coaxing. She wasn't sure if she could stand for long as she grabbed the twin's shoulders and moaned just a bit when he flicked his tongue across a most sensitive spot.

"I..can't stand through this," she gasped after minute, trembling slightly when he peered up at her almost mischeviously. He stood slowly, running his hand up her inner thigh and against her sensativity just slightly till he was standing before her. Yossi reached her arms around his neck till he bent and picked her up again, this time he headed for the door. Yossi flicked her tongue over his earlobe, nibbling. This she learned quickly was something they both enjoyed. The twin carried her into the lounge, his brother was draped over an oversized chair, sitting quietly in the twilight of the room. Outside, the sun was almost completely set, and nobody had bothered to turn on any lights. The twin, looking almost asleep in the chair for a moment, stirred only enough to fold his hands in his lap with a smirk upon his lips.

Yossi was laid upon the couch. Many times one watched while she was brought to orgasm, it didn't bother her like it used to. At one time, one of them even stroked her hair as she lay moaning through the others menstrations. She was still damp from the bath, her hair still dripping and soaking the soft fabric of the couch. His tongue was playing with the area around her belly button, she squirmed just a bit, tickled by it. Her eyes had closed as she grinned, her hands brought about her head to hold the arm rest above her. It was then that she realized that the other wasn't going to be left out. His fingers brushed against her's as he bent over, this time playing a more bold part in their game. He kissed her deeply while standing above her, both hands gripping her wrists. Her stomach tingled again.

Blinking up at him, she noticed the only article of his attire missing was his coat when he pulled away and kneeled, still softly holding her wrists. Her attention, however, was quickly returned to his brother, when he grabbed her thighs and pulled her closer till she wrapped her legs around his body. It was then that she noticed he was naked. He must have undressed while she was occupied by his brother, who was crawling over the side of the couch, picking her head up to put in his lap. She had laced her fingers behind his back while he smoothed his hands down her sides while he watched idly with a small smirk upon his expression. Yossi was curious about it, but her attention was quickly returned to the other. He had gripped her waist as he bent over to softly kiss her stomach. He was going to take her virginity, Yossi realized with a gasp.

Yelping loudly, she untangled her fingers from behind the twin whose lap her head occupied and gripped his shirt. Her face was a mask of pain as she gritted her teeth. A cold hand brushed against her cheek as he quietly shushed her comfortingly. The pain was slowly subsiding, however, replaced by pleasure as the twin set a slow, methodical pace. Releasing her waist, he repositioned himself till his face was just below her's, where he nibbled her collar bone. His brother, still expressing a smirk, peered down at Yossi. She could feel him watching her and her eyes blinked open. He ran his hands over her still wet hair, almost matching the rhythm of his brother.

The cold body of the twin bent over her was comforting, and so she felt a little lost when he straightened himself. His pale bodice held her gaze instantly and the urge to run her fingers across his alabastor skin was almost too much. She wouldn't have to wait long, however, as his brother ran his hands beneath her and brought her to a sitting position. Yossi peered up at the face of the twin before her, his expression was calm and secretive as usual. The twin behind her ran his fingers across her back, his brother then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer as he moved to position her to the other side of him. The arm of the couch reached just below the middle of her back and she leaned over it till her hair was dangling below as the twin kissed the area between her breasts and found a much faster pace inside of her.

Yossi's moans were soft at first. Her arms and legs were wrapped around him as his hands moved slowly down her back till he reached her butt. He slowed, he wouldn't end this now. He moved again, this time into a regular sitting position. Yossi was led to his lap by him slowly and she could see that his brother was leaning against the other arm, watching with an almost bored expression upon his face. When he saw Yossi peering at him, however, the edge of his lips perked into a lop-sided grin.

Yossi felt odd, sitting atop the twin. Her hands idly roamed across his chest. When the twin realized she would need a little coaxing, however, he gripped her waist, thrusting till Yossi would meet his pace. She glared and wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his dreaded hair, doing as he implied while he did the rest. The pace he set was maddening, quickening and slowing, working her to a frenzy and then settling down. This time, a warmth came quickly to her stomach, but he stopped again. She was panting and watching him as he pulled her away from him. She felt the other twin stirring to the side. He moved slowly towards them and pulled Yossi off his brother like she were a favored doll. The warmth between her legs was damp and felt cold when he left her.

Icy, pale arms wrapped around her bosom as she was drug towards the other side of the couch. The twin behind her laid her between his legs as he reclined against the arm of the couch as the other twin followed. He crawled the short distance till both arms were on either side of Yossi's waist. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted back against the chest of the twin as he ran his hands across her breasts, massaging her gently as his brother kissed her inner thigh. He moved onward however, toying with her till he yet again brought her nearly to orgasm. Yossi's hands were gripping the knees of the twin behind her when his brother stopped.

Opening her eyes, Yossi glared at the man before her. She wanted to tell him to stop playing, she needed to be fulfilled and now, less she risk exploding. She pulled herself up by the twin's knee and used her other hand to snake around the others neck, pulling him closer. His dreads fell over his shoulder and touched the skin of her breasts as she pulled him atop her. She bit his lower lip, almost painfully, but he didn't flinch. She kissed him deeply as he positioned himself again, working into her and this time not stopping.

---

Waking in a completely different area than where you fell asleep can be quite disorientating. Pushing the covers off her sweating body, Yossi wasn't perturbed that she wasn't dressed, and didn't bother to cover herself. It was simply too hot to worry about nudity. Despite the fact that she was lightly sweating, there was something cool against her skin. Opening her eyes fully and peering off to the one side, she realized that a half dressed twin was laying beside her, still and silent as if he were asleep. She only guessed that his eyes must be closed, but she wasn't fooled, she learned long ago that they didn't sleep. His presence was like a cool breeze against her body, yet she was still too warm for comfort. The part of the bed where she lay had gathered her body heat and hadn't let it go, but the body of the twin was so cool and comfortable. There was room on the other side of him, and thus she decided to lay there and doze for the rest of the morning. He was laying atop the covers, but Yossi wasn't planning on climbing under.

She reached over him, crawling to the other side when she paused. In her position, she was straddling him, but he hadn't moved an inch. No emotion perked his lips. Perhaps he really was asleep. This was a first. He was at her mercy, finally. A sense of power overcame her. Never in those five years had she ever succeeded in surprising one. His expression was serene and the pale light from the shaded window made his complexion utterly smooth. She had to restrain herself from touching him. She didn't want to ruin this oppertunity. There was only one thing on her mind. To remove the sunglasses that for so long masked their eyes.

Her hand inched towards his face. Her stomach was a pure knot as she closed the distance. She would kill the mystery finally, but she paused. Halfway and she couldn't move. Some form of regret was washing over her. She shook her head and clinched her eyes closed. This was the only time she had ever gotten a chance, ever had them unawares. The moment took forever, but when her fingertips brushed against the metal, she stopped breathing entirely.

One of the twins hands was resting atop his chest, the other a ways from his side. Yossi's knee was resting between his arm and his waist, and it was there that the twin's thumb brushed against her skin. Yossi gripped the side of his sunglasses between her pointer and her thumb. The twins hand caressed her thigh till it was resting at her waist, but he didn't move to stop her. She met her own eyes in the reflection of the glass, her expression was worried. A thin line appeared above her brow and her heart hammered against her ribs. The twin was still as serene as when she first straddled him.

She bent till her face was just above his own, her eyes were large in the reflection. She tilted her head just a bit and kissed him for a long moment, exploring his mouth fully before pulling away, and as she did, the glasses came with. She hadn't realized that her eyes were closed. As she pulled the sunglasses free, she squeezed her eyes tightly and cringed. A silent moment passed before Yossi felt the twins hand cup her cheek. He pulled her closer and Yossi slowly relaxed, but was still refraining from opening her eyes.

"What are you afraid of," his voice sounded foreign to Yossi's ears. They hadn't talked much the last couple of days.

A tear trickled down her cheek, she wanted to apologize, but no words were escaping her throat. She could feel his presence like a comforting shadow, she wouldn't have to move much to kiss him again. The sunglasses were still clutched within her hand, but she had forgotten about them. The twin raised to lean upon one of his elbows as the other hand left her waist to smooth the wet trail of the tear away. She felt ashamed.

"Open your eyes," Yossi could feel his icy breath against her lips as he spoke. He kissed her, pulling her closer as he laid back against the pillows. Finally, Yossi released the sunglasses, using that hand to caress his cheek, running her thumb along his jaw. She sat up then, peering down at the twin, who's eyes were slowly opening. Her heart was a ball of clenched muscle that kept getting tighter and tighter. She thought she shouldn't have been so nervous about this, but in the five years that she had spent with them, their eyes were a well guarded secret. She felt as if she were opening Pandora's box, as if something terrible would soon happen.

"Grey," her breath escaped her slowly, almost painfully. Dark eyelashes contrasted the pure white of his hair, and appeared so soft. She pressed her lips to the side of his eye as he stroked her hair before exploring further downwards yet again. Rolling till he was on top, the twin peered closely at Yossi as she smoothed her hands over his pale chest. Pants were the only thing he donned this morning. She wrapped her legs around his waist, she wanted to ask him why they always wore their glasses, but she was satisfied for today. It seemed the removal of them was something very important, questions could wait till tomorrow.

---

The afternoon promised another arctic night. The sky was grey and dim, the clouds were low and moist and offered only more snow and low temperatures. Inside the hotel, however, it was cozy. The harsh outside weather was like a distant memory for those who lounged in the warmth of their heated homes. Back when there was no electricity, babies were often born in the late summer, and there's a perfectly good reason for that. Couple's bundled together for body warmth next to those warm fires. Plus there's not much more you can do when your stuck inside with a snow storm raging against your log house.

Yossi emerged for the second time that day from an exhausted slumber. This time, however, she was alone in her bed, and rather cold. Thick blankets made a comfortable nest around her, and she pulled them up around her shoulders as she sat up, looking about. Lazily she untangled herself from the comforters and found her clothes that had been neatly folded on the bottem corner of the bed. With an extravagent yawn, she lightly stepped from the bed to search the hotel room for it's other occupants, pulling at her clothes till they layed comfortably against her skin. Goosebumps rose upon her arms. Even though the room was at an even temperature, after the warmth of the covers of her bed, the heating of the room wasn't the same. Or at least she was certain that the temperature had thrown her off.

Searching the small rooms, she found no sign of the twins. This made her nervous and her heart beat rapidly in her ears. Finally she noticed that the door to their room was wide open. She stood in the middle of the entrance to the hotel room staring with wide eyes into the hall. A gunshot exploded somewhere below and a lady screamed. Yossi slowly peered around the corner into the oddly silent hallway. The elevator door was parallel to her own. She stood there for a moment and in her silence another gun exploded a bullet. She jumped and right after the elevator chimed, announcing its arrival.

Instead of the expected silver and white bodies, four people in mostly black exited through the sliding doors. Yossi's eyes were impossibly wide, they turned and walked straight for her. She stumbled back, falling on her rump. Her hands shook when she scrambled to close and lock the door, and she trembled even more when she raced to the closet to find her bag with her guns. Just as she pulled the hammer back, the sound of a gun and splintering wood echoed into the room. Her ears rang as she aimed for whoever was going to turn the corner into the bedroom. The hotel room was small, a little entrance way led straight to the living room and kitchen, all neatly decorated in white, yet off to the left was the large bedroom and bathroom. Yossi stood in front of the bed, the blankets still a tangled mass in the middle, the pillows still askew. She had to force herself to hold the gun steady, but she was standing there aiming at air. Noone had turned the corner.

Yossi knew better than to go and search for them. She knew the best thing to do would be to lock herself in the bathroom, but the twins weren't with her. They hadn't told her to hide, she was all by herself. The gun began to feel heavy in her hands and she shivered again. She crept slowly towards the door, her eyes still wide as she tried to look everywhere at once. Standing in the middle of the bedroom door, she couldn't make herself take another step. Intuition kept her cemented there, and she soon realized why. The handle of her Browning was gripped in both hands, held out before her, yet all possibility of aiming was gone as she trembled. A black-clad body stepped out from the entrance way corner and Yossi tripped over her feet, falling to the ground, her gun landing a few feet from her body as she used her foot to quickly slam the door. She turned over and scrambled to arm herself again. She pointed the barrel squarely at where the rebel had once stood and fired several times.

Though she knew the man wouldn't stand there, it was stil satifying to know there was a hole where he once was. She panted for a second and stood once more, then sprinted for the bathroom. This was the farthest she could go, however. A sinking feeling overcame her as she heard the door to the bedroom open. The bathroom door had no lock she ran for the fartherest place from the door, the standing shower. She climbed in, pushing the door as far open as it could go, she held it there with her foot, and aimed for the first thing to walk through. The door burst open, breaking one of it's hinges. A large black boot was the first thing Yossi saw, and she fired once at it. Whoever it was quickly recoiled, yet was unharmed, she missed by an inch, leaving only a small bullet hole in the tile floor, which stood out like a black eye against the rest of the shining white.

After the explosion of her gun, the hotel went dead silent. Her ears began to ring again as she tried to not pant loudly. If she could only see how many rebels were in her room she could know exactly how many bullets she had to spare, and so far she wasn't doing too well. Her clip was already missing a few bullets from the last time she used it. She didn't make a habit of checking her guns often.

"Your friends are dead, Yossi," an unfamiliar, female voice echoed into the bathroom. Did she mean the twins?

Yossi's blood seemed to have turned to ice. Her finger stiffened on the trigger and she stopped breathing. The bathroom grew very dark as she stood alone in the shower. Yossi stood a little straighter, moving her foot that was keeping the shower door open, so it slowly closed with a creaking sound. That was why she was defending herself all alone. That was why the door was open and why she awoke in solitude. Because they weren't there anymore. Where does a dead program go? Somebody stood before Yossi, blocking the light from the open bathroom door. Through the fogged glass of the shower door, it's figure was hazy. Whoever it was, however, had long blonde hair. Yossi's world was diminished till that was all she could see, and when the door was opened, she fainted.

---

In her frigid darkness, the grey eyes of the programs peered down at her. Everything the twins meant to Yossi was conveyed through that color now, protection, strength, survival, lust, and more. Nausea burned at the back of her throat. Her stomach clenched tightly and her meager meal jumped up into her mouth. She turned over and let it all out. She blinked up into a burning light. Her world was still upside down and as she attempted to sit up, everything melted and slid down till she was in darkness again.

The second time she awoke, it was easier to sit up. Hunger gnawed at her insides, urging her to find food. When she opened her eyes, her world was more stable than the last time she looked around. She studied her surroundings for a second. Nothing was familiar. Her heart hammered fiercely at her chest as fear gripped at her mind. The room smelled faintly of mold beneath the heavy stench of her vomit, even though a harsh flouresent light shimmered on the shiney stainless steel interior. It was cold, the only furnishings were a matching steel chair and a table. Yossi picked herself up off the ground and peered at her reflection in the small window of the door that almost blended in with the wall. She padded over to it trying to gaze through the one way mirror.

A long sigh escaped as she slowly slid to the floor with her back pressed to the door. Her head hung between her knees as she nervously ran her hands through her hair. The twins continued to run through her mind. She hoped dearly that she only imagined what they said, or better yet, it was a lie. But where were the twins? Why weren't they there to help her? If they were alive, wouldn't they rescue her soon? She looked up again and studied the room, she needed to think of a way to escape. Her brows came together, forming a small line between them. She didn't even know where she was, and from the looks of it, the only way out was the door at her back. The situation was bleak indeed.

The pangs of hunger grumbled loudly, breaking the silence. She jumped up, however, when a click alerted her that somebody had unlocked the door behind her. She took several steps backwards, and as it slowly, soundlessly swung open, she sprinted for the far corner and sank to the floor. Her eyes resembled a fretfull fawns as she watched with her nerves stretched thin for whoever was going to walk through the door.

A woman in shimmering leather and heavy boots walked in with stunning grace. Her long blonde air was pulled into a loose pony tail, straight and smooth. She was stunning as she moved to sit in the only chair, her hands folded neatly. Sun glasses shaded her eyes like all the rebels, but Yossi was certain she'd have clear blue irises. A ghost of a smile gave her dimples, she was sure this woman couldn't be much older than herself, unless she had a beauty that lasted well into old age.

With apprehension, Yossi uncurled from the protective ball she had rolled into, her legs stretching out before she crossed them. Her hands moved slowly to the cold floor, pushing beneath her thighs that had momentarily warmed them.

"Are you hungry? I'm sure you must be," as the woman spoke, Yossi's eyes flitted to the old vomit drying on the floor. It wasn't something she would have liked for the woman to see. She almost apologized, but the woman spoke again before she could summon any words, "I'll have that cleaned up when I get you some food. But what I have to say is more important than your dinner."

The way she spoke surprised Yossi. Her pronuniation was harsh and direct, making her seem stern and almost bitter. Yossi brought her legs back up, her head just above her knees.

"You have an amazing hacking record, Yossi," the way she said her name surfaced a memory, she was person who kicked the bathroom door in, who told her the twins were dead, "and we have an idea why the ghosts have kept you so long. You've been with them for almost six years now, haven't you?" she didn't wait for Yossi to answer, "Another record you have, however, isn't so admirable. You have killed three rebels. The last two were under my command," she looked directly at Yossi then, as if she were gazing right through her. "I'm sure you haven't heard of me, but my name is Philo. However, my husband might have a name that sounds familiar to you. Have you ever heard of," she paused and tilted her head to the side, "Dice?" She said his name with a grin, which brightened when Yossi's eyes widened just a bit. Yossi swallowed loudly and she didn't follow Philo when she stood and walked to the door.

"I'll have your food brought to you, I'll explain further what you're here for, and why you're still alive, tomorrow."

---

End note/


	9. Chapter 9

Beginning Note/

---

There wasn't a way of telling exactly when the madness began. The room offered none but artificial light, and she was either in the middle of a very large and quiet building or there were sound proofed walls that boxed her in. It must have been several hours after she finished eating the meager meal she was provided. Three rebels walked in, and without explanation, grabbed her up and escorted her, blind folded, to a car of some sort and drove for another hour or so. She sat in silence and darkness and thought of exactly nothing. Not the emptiness in her stomach or the sense of loss that had imprinted itself into her mind. Defeat was easier to accept than hope when you were alone and weak. She sat placidly, feeling the bumps that the car drove over and swaying softly with the motion. It was sort of like a ballad that was meant to drift one off slowly to sleep. After dozing quietly, she was stirred and taken into another building and left for the rest of the night with another plate of food, this time a sort of mush with bread and water. In all of that time, her thoughts never once turned to the twins.

She decided very firmly, just before she fell asleep for what she thought was the night, that if she didn't think about the twins anymore, she could forget the last five and a half years of her life. Her memories would hazily disappear and she would be left in blissful ignorance. This was the thought that comforted her as she fell into sleep.

Just as Philo had promised, she woke Yossi early in the morning to finish their conversation. With a tap of her boot to Yossi's arm, Philo peered down at the slowly waking girl. Blurrily, Yossi peered up at the leather-clad rebel, who's expression resembled a smug cat. The woman crouched down, her face very near Yossi, who leaned away, intending to escape the rebel's encroachment. However Philo caught Yossi behind the neck and pulled her close till she forcefully pressed her lips to Yossi's. Her eyes went wide, and when Philo snapped back up into a standing position, Yossi quickly wiped at the cherry red lipstick smeared upon her lips.

"You may not understand this," Philo said as she turned away, leaving Yossi to recuperate, "but I believe that kiss was meant for my husband," she looked over her shoulder with a grin, her hair half-obscuring her face. "You see," she said, turning and gracefully walking around Yossi, "you saw my husband die, you were part of the reason why he is..no longer amoung the living." Yossi turned, still sitting on the floor, which she noticed was filthy. "So part of him, part of his..data, is inside of you," she said this with a grand gesture, as if she were realizing some profound truth. Yossi watched her warily, her arm still touching her lips from where she had wiped at the lipstick.

Philo whipped around, her long hair flying out behind her, "That, my dear child, is one small reason why you are still alive," she held up a long, thin finger to mark the number one. "But the main reason why you are here is because you, so cleverly endowed you are, will hack the Matrix for us. That is why we are not able to awaken you to the real world. We wouldn't want to risk you losing the connection, you see?"

Yossi's expression was resentful as she watched Philo speak, which was more like preaching as she made coloful gestures with her hands. "I don't want to go to the real world," she glared at Philo as she spoke.

"Well you won't have to worry about that now will you?" she walked up to Yossi then and crouched once again, Yossi began to scramble back, but Philo grabbed her thigh, and once again at the back of her neck. She smiled wickedly, then used her hand that had grabbed Yossi's thigh to daintly clean a small bit of her smeared lipstick off. "It'll be quite a while before you can fulfull your expectations. Zion, afterall, is counting on you."

Yossi inched away then, Philo's intense emotions were like a terrible weight pressing against her. They must have been aiming for the same date that the Twins had scheduled. Dread ran like ice through her body, it was still a year away. Philo must have seen the realization in Yossi's eyes, for she grinned wickedly. She could feel the beginnings of panic taking away her breath. Philo was still too close, bile was crawling up her throat. All of this brought back the memories from when this whole mess began, only quite the opposite. It wasn't the rebels that were dead, it was the twins. Irony could be so cruel sometimes. Her vision was fogged by misty tears, but crying was one thing she didn't care for.

A split second decision and she landed a fist in the middle of Philo's cheek. For a moment the rebel was paralized by utter suprise, Yossi turned and scrambled to her feet, she sprinted for the door, but Philo lunged and, with a vice-like grip, latched to Yossi's ankle. The girl was yanked from her feet, but she didn't give up. She kicked again and again at the rebels pristine face, breaking her nose, blood spurted everywhere. She wouldn't release Yossi's ankle, however, even after she turned and wailed upon her head. The door opened quickly after and three others in black and even a little red, ran to Philo's aid. Yossi grabbed a handful of the pure blonde hair as she was wretched up, halfway pulling the rebel up with her. Philo groaned till the others pried her fingers from her hair, which was speckled with the blood from Yossi's fist. More of the crimson liquid ran down the rebels face from her nose, she wiped at it as she stalked from the room, tossing the command for the others to withhold Yossi's meals for the day.

"Heh, you're going to be in some heat tomorrow, little lady," the only female out of the three walked in front of her, the others still holding her tightly by her arms, keeping her held up to her toes. They were all much taller than she, so she peered up at the rebel that spoke to her. "You may be unharmed today, but Philo will make sure that doesn't last," the woman grinned like a morbid looking cat. It didn't have the same affect as when the twins made the similiar expression. The rebel grabbed Yossi by her chin, squishing her lips together, "it's a shame your so cute, it's not going to last till the end of the year," she smirked crookedly, making her seem incredibly malicous.

Roughly releasing Yossi, the rebel swiftly stalked from the room, followed by the others, after they dropped Yossi, who fell to the ground in a shivering heap.

---

Eight months passed with an agonizing pace. Philo and Ouija, which was the only other rebel who ever spoke to Yossi, ensured that her stay with them was a malevolent experience. She was quickly taught that her body was a fragile thing indeed and that they owned her in every way possible. Their intentions were never clear when they payed her a visit. Humiliation was their favored tactic.

During her time thus far, she was moved almost every night to a new location. The drive from one place to another was usually the only time harassment was withheld when she was in the company of her watchers. Bound and blindfolded, she enjoyed the ride as much as she could. She was sure the reason they moved her was for the same reason the twins traveled so often. Agents were a pesky nuisance, and probably more dangerous for the rebels than they were for the twins, who had a decisive advantage.

Yossi, who sat in the back seat of a car that smelled strongly of leather, furrowed her eyebrows. She managed to keep the thought of the twins banished from her mind for most of the time. She shook her head as if to send the thought fleeing, when the car was suddenly jolted to one side. Yossi fell against the body of the rebel, who fell against the cardoor. She felt the vehicle gain speed quickly, but was rammed into again.

Wind rushed into the car as a window was rolled down and a spray of bullets could be heard. Yossi crawled down onto the small space between the front seats and the back. Another window was rolled down and another gun fired at their assailent. She pressed herself as far down as she could, hoping to escape any stray bullets. However, the urge to see who their attackers were was almost unbareable. Her stomach clenced at the thought that maybe it was the twins. She squeezed her eyes tightly, knowing that she could get the blindfold off now since everybody was busy.

The surprised grunt of a rebel startled her, even more so when the warm spray of blood splattered her. Rubbing her head against the seat, the blindfold came free and she cautiously sat up. The rebel fartherest from the gunners was halfway out of the window, still targetting the other car. As she expected, the other was laying across the seat, bleeding profusely from a wound in his chest. She was certain that if she looked at it just right, she'd be able to see the seat on the other side of him through the large, meaty hole. Taking the chance that the attackers were targetting the other rebel, she rose a tiny bit till she could see just above the door.

Agents, two of them, the passenger side one was holding a mean-looking gun. Yossi ducked in time for several rounds of bullets to bust through the glass. The rebel behind her, however, was right in their way, and his legs were quickly spouting blood that coated Yossi's back. The warmth of it quickly seeped uncomfortably to her skin. She gritted her teeth and pushed herself as low as she could to the car floor. In the moment the rebel took to check out his leg, climbing back into the car, he was shot in the side several times, turning his organs into mush.

The car jerked to the side again as the agents rammed them. The driver was now their target since the offending rebels in the back seat were no longer inhibiting them. They were continuesly gaining and losing speed as they swerved through traffic, the driver was dodging pedestrians as well as bullets. The rebel on the passenger side reached over Yossi to grab a gun dropped by his fellows. As he was climbing through his window, however, he was shot perfectly betweent he eyes before he could even aim. The gun flew out of his hand as he sailed backwards, falling from the car and tumbling to a stop on the side of the road.

Yet again the Agents rammed the car, the sound of metal turned to tin foil was an uncomfortable noise. Yossi could see that the door she was facing was folded in several different places. It was certain to never be opened again. Yossi was bounced between the seats again, the agents were more violently pounding into the car, and this time it swerved to the sidewalk, hit the lone standing fire hydrent and was vaulted into the air. Yossi's breath caught in her lungs, she thought it was strange that she was falling to the roof. The car did a small turn and landed on it's back, Yossi could barely hear the tires of the agents squeel to a halt. She fell unconscience then.

Sadly, however, she woke sooner than she'd have liked. The driver was dead, and a large chunk of the car had been ripped open to gain acess to Yossi. She was now laying in a heap at the feet of the agents, drowsily coming back awake. The light of the sun was blinding, surely she had suffered a concusion. Parts of her body felt on fire and sticky wet at the same time. A few broken bones at the least, and the position she was laying in made one of her legs fall numb. She knew that if she moved it, it would hurt like hell, though.

"Real name.."

"Lise Jones..," as one began the sentence, the other finished. Yossi opened her eyes, confused. That wasn't her name. Her brows furrowed as she peered at the cracks in the concrete.

"Real name.."

"Unknown."

Yossi turned her head slowly, wincing as pain spiked through her body, till she could see two agents standing over her, both looking in opposite directions off to the horizon it seemed. She wasn't as afraid as she thought she would have been. At the feet and mercy of two agents, creatures that she had ran from for several years now, she couldn't feel the fright she had once before, only a dull thobbing at the back of her head, she was certain, however, that came from the car crash she had just endured.

"Terminate?" came the low drolling voice of one of the agents as Yossi closed her eyes.

"She is to remain alive, for the time being."

Yossi moaned aloud, both Agents peered down at her with a blank expression that she found was common among their kind. She wanted to stand so badly now, being in the company of Agents was most likely worse than the presence of the rebels. She didn't want to lay down and wait for them to torture her. She tried to move the arm she was laying on out from beneath her. An intense fire was roiling beneath the skin of both arms and across her shoulder blades as she moved into a push-up position. The Agents seemed unconcerned as she attempted this. Her eyes were squeezed tightly as fireworks exploded in her darkness. Sweat beaded her skin, and when she opened her eyes, her vision was black on the far side of her view.

Down the street from Yossi and the Agents, two speeding streetbikes were roaring towards them. Yossi could hear the squeeling engines, yet they were coming from behind her, and she didn't want to try and look. The Agents turned to the menacing couple coming towards them and aimed their large handguns, firing several rounds. The shells fell to the ground, making a tinkling sound as several rolled into Yossi's vision.

Ouija and Philo weaved from side to side, dodging the bullets of the Agents. Both pulled out their own sub-machine guns and returned fire. The Agents dodged them all with ease, and as the rebels roared closer, they walked in different directions, one crossed the street as the other passed Yossi, leaving her where she lay. The curb to the sidewalk was near her, but she still felt all too vulnerable on the street. The sound of the motorcycles was becoming louder, drowning out even her own voice in her mind. The louder the engines roared, the faster Yossi felt panic overcoming her. As she struggled to the side of the street, she was trembling horribly. Fear and pain numbed her body as she finally rolled onto the curb, and not long after Ouija and Philo came roaring past.

They were finally within her field of vision, Yossi watched as both streetbikes squealed, making a hairpin turn and roaring back down on the Agents. One had to tumble out of the way as Philo weaved around, shooting off a couple bullets, then speeding back down the street, only to turn and come at him again. Ouija was ahead and on the side of the street Yossi had come to rest upon. Though she was wearing a helmet, Yossi could see her shining red hair, barely sticking out from under the helmet.

Frustration soon brought tear's to the girl's eyes. This was probably going to be the only chance Yossi would ever have at a perfect escape, but her body had failed her. Such a perfectly sunny morning, with birds singing and the air fresh, and Yossi was lying, bloody and bruised, on the side of the road as gunfire rattled her teeth, and two screaming engines roared on either side of her. Peering out of the side of her gaze, Yossi could see that Philo had manuevered the Agent far from the road. She gunned the engine and tore down the road till Yossi felt that she would have to move or be hit by the speeding motorcycle. However, Philo skid to a halt, hopped from the bike and pulled Yossi to her feet.

With a scream of protest, Yossi did her best escape Philo's grip.

"I'm either going to put you on the bike or give you something to really scream about, girl, it's your choice, but you had better make it quick," Philo said before turning to see the Agent sprinting for them and firing her gun, causing the Agent to leap, tumble, and run again. Yossi gave up and allowed Philo to pull her on behind her. In the process, Yossi's gaze nearly went completely black, she screamed and cried but it didn't make it hurt any less, and when she was finally wrapping her sore arms around Philo's abdomen, she realized there was a strange lump on the side of her thigh, along with plenty of blood that was seeping through the thin pale gray fabric. It was ominous, and she couldn't stand to look at the oddity in more, thus squeezing her eyes closed as Philo throttled the bike and raced down the street. The ride was by no mean smooth, but Yossi forced herself to cling to Philo's back.

---

Waking alone in a cold, dark room can be an unsettling experience. A thin blanket covered her as she lay on small cot. Yossi could feel an icy wall to one side, but she didn't want to explore her surroundings any further. She was horridly sore and the next thing she noticed was that she couldn't move her legs. One of them seemed to be tightly casted from her upper thigh to her ankle, and the other was tightly wrapped in an uncomfortable, itchy material. Yossi sighed deeply and closed her eyes, though there was no different in the matter of light whether they were opened or shut. She had never grown used to waking in such a dark and lonely place in the seven months that she had been the rebels prisoner.

Her darkness, however was soon dissolved as a bright light illuminated a section of the room when the only door was opened. Yossi squinted against the brightness, but didn't sit up. Philo sashayed up to Yossi's cot, but she didn't see the rebels face through the thick shadow. She had an idea, though, that it wasn't a kindly expression dwelling there.

"Zion has sent you it's good wishes that you get well soon," Yossi could imagine the expression that went with the rebels sarcastic tone. "You were beaten pretty badly in that accident, I hope you know that you alone survived where my four comrads had died. You're lucky," Philo seemed to spit acid with her last comment. "I'm sure you can heal it quickly, though.." As Philo said this, Yossi's mind immediatly went to thoughts of the Twins, how they had healed themselves on a few occasions. She shook her head to rid herself of the thought, for whatever good it would do.

"There is only five more months till you fulfill your duty, Zion won't forget you," Philo's tone of voice only seemed to be getting more sarcastic. Yossi was curious what had put her on edge this evening as she watched the shadow where Philo's face must have been shooting daggers at her. The rebel surprised Yossi when she sank to sit on the edge of the cot. With her new position, Yossi could see Philo's face more clearly with the yellow light from the open door.

"But you don't deserve their condolences..You will get better, you will suffer, and then we'll kill you. I will leave your meat out for the Agents."

Yossi sank back into the pillow as far as she could as the rebel spoke. Philo had inched closer and closer, her intensity was an unbareable warmth, like she was speaking with a burning fire in her throat that seeped out and burnt her very skin. She closed her eyes tightly and then felt Philo's weight lift from the cot. Yossi heard the door closing, and only then did she peak out into the darkness, though she knew she wouldn't be able to see anything. She was alone, and relieved, and then fell asleep once again to troubled dreams.

---

A day after they stopped bandaging her wounds, Philo's words truly sank in. It had taken three months for the cast to come off. The scars were pink and puffy, but she no longer hobbled around with her cast, wincing and gritting her teeth against the frustration and pain. Once all the healing was over, Philo and Ouija were back in full force. Several nights a week the two rebels tested out various devices that could be seen as either pain or pleasureful, depending on your view of things. For Yossi, though, those nights were nothing but torture. There were now three months left to endure, but already Yossi only wished for death. She believed firmly that that was her only escape. As nights trudged onwards with a sense of unbareable monotony, Yossi took refuge deep inside herself.

And then, a break in the darkness. An unseasonally chilly spring morning left Yossi squirming on the frigid leather in the backseat of a car. Not long ago they stopped taking the time to blindfold her, and Yossi never realized that this worked well in her favor this morning. She was still bound tightly as usual, but she had an advantage now. Yossi was peering forelornly out of the window when this thought struck her, and as she thought back to all of the times they had been transferring her in this manner, she realized many of their mistakes. It was simply just that she had given up her hope of escaping. She could have been free by now. Peering curiously around, she watched as the rebels beside her peered out the windows as well, yawning in their apparent sleeplessness. She had never taken the rebels that transported her into consideration and she cursed herself for not taking advantage of the situation sooner.

But how to do so? She decided, as they were pulling up to a new building in the middle of nowhere, that she would just have to wing it. The rebels did just as they usually do, all exited the car and followed suite, sliding over and stepping out. Before the rebel closest could lead her to the building by her elbow, she twisted away from his grasp and landed her heel right on his shoulder. He crumpled to his knees. Surprisingly, it took a couple seconds for the other to react, just as it took a couple seconds for her to free herself from the loosely tied ropes. It seemed that everyone had become careless over the months.

A few well aimed fists took out another rebel as the first got to his feet warily. Two of the others pulled their guns. Yossi dodged the first bullet and circled around one of them, quickly disarming him as she moved to use him as a shield. Her face was a mask of concentration. She didn't want this morning to go down in flames. She was happy to realize that the rebel she had hostage was also the driver. She fished his keys from his pocket and gunned down the nearest rebel. She would have to kill them all. As the first rebel dead fell to the ground, the rest made a run for cover, none of them made it. The rebel she held whimpered, he must have had the same thoughts she had while being held by Philo.

She ran to the car, leaving the four dead rebels bleeding in the dust and she drove away in the chilly morning. She wasn't sure of the direction she should be driving, never had she been this far from the city. She'd stop the first chance she had and would ask directions, but for now, getting as far as possible from the rebels was all she had in mind. She gripped the stirring wheel fiercly, thoughts of the Twins were surfacing with a vengence. As if finally being free from Philo meant that she would be at the mercy of her memories. Tears stung in her eyes, blurring her vision for a moment. It was a good thing the road was deserted, not only was she distracted, but learning to drive at the same time at 95 miles per hour.

---

When she finally made it to the city, she realized she'd be living a normal life soon. Perhaps she'd have to kill Philo and Ouija before she could actually settle down, but a normal life, if she survived, would eventually come calling. The first place she went to by instinct was her apartment. The building was in horrid condition, and she realized then that this was probably how it looked back then as well. It was old, but probably hadn't changed in the last fifty years. She opened the large entrance doors and was hit by the strongest memory yet.

--flash--

She had always been an alert girl. Always in tune with her surroundings, so even when she had immersed herself deep in thought, she didn't bump into the smooth leather-clad back of the woman leading her down the stairs. Everyone looked down over the dirty wooden railing at the entrance of the apartment. The double doors were right there, they could leave now, but the oddest person Yossi had ever seen was blocking the way. The entrance room of the apartment building was big and sparcely decorated. The wide stairs twisted around to face the doors straight on, and right now, everyone was looking sideways over the railing and into the pale white face of an equally pallid clad man. One side of his mouth was turned upwards as he gave a dangerous smirk. He, too, was wearing sunglasses, but Yossi had the creeping sensation that he was watching her behind them. It wasn't difficult to tell he was on the 'machines' side.

--end--

When she finally managed to banish the flood of emotions, she was kneeling on the dusty floor with tears running into her hands that hid her face. She quickly wiped them away, and when she touched the floor to balance herself as she stood again, she left behind a muddy handprint. Yossi looked at it curiously. The floor, beneath the layers of dust, seemed to be marble. It struck Yossi as odd that such a dilapidated building had such an expensive floor. She didn't think about it long and quickly traversed the stairs all the way to her old apartment. She realized that after so many years, it couldn't possibly be hers any longer. She stood right at the door, listening for signs of anyone moving inside. Ten minutes passed by and finally she knocked on the dark wooden door. She didn't really want to go inside she realized, but before she could walk away, the door opened. A small, red haired and green eyed girl opened the door. She looked up at Yossi, who stood there staring down at her.

"I...I'm sorry," she said, her voice thick with her troubled emotions, and she swiftly walked down the stairs and left the building. She didn't get into the car she had been driving, but took the first chance she got and stole one that the driver had just exited. It was still running, the man must have planned on making a quick stop. She drove for an hour then, concentrating only on the turn of the wheel the pedels at her feet.

--

End Note/


	10. Chapter 10

Beginning Note/

--

Driving wasn't as horrible as she had imagined it being. But she thought that if she were to run into some enemy, that she'd have a better chance of survival if she were on foot. Leaving the car sitting in the parkinglot of a random office building, she began to traverse the sidewalks. The city was as busy as a typical business lunch hour, unaware of the things going on behind the scenes. She watched the faces of the people passing her, wondering if she would be happy returning to the life of the normal person. Yossi in a business suit was something she couldn't do. Hacking would have to sustain her life, just like it had been before the Twins and Rebels and their world. But she had become a part of that world, so it was her's as well. The thought was frightening. She knew where she was, but she wasn't sure of her destination until she was there.

She was standing at the entrance of the hotel she had first stayed at with the twins with a donning sense of horror overcoming her. Her feet had led her to the one place that was brimming with old, painful memories. It was as grand and beautiful now as it had been those many years ago. Her heart ached painfully as she watched people coming to and fro through the sliding doors that opened obediantly to allow their passage quietly. They were blissfully living happily ever after. And, with the impression that she was being pulled along by a string with no other choice, she entered.

--

Unbeknownst to Yossi as she entered, somebody was watching her. The twins were standing motionless in the tide of people, making way for them like water parting for rocks. They watched Yossi like they were watching a ghost walk into the hotel. She was supposed to be dead. The rebels had killed her, and for retribution, they had gone on a hunt, killing them with ease whenever they could. They had avenged her death, they believed, and now she had returned. When a flower is crushed in a harsh fist, it can't simply return to it's old splendor. They were quick to follow their ghost into the hotel, their own memories returning to the day they had first led her into the building, when she was their prisoner, not their lover.

---

The expensive Italian decorations were splendid just as she remembered. Her fingers ached to run across the smooth gold plating, to touch the petals of the exotic flowers, but she had one reason for walking in here, she believed. Nothing at the moment was more important than seeing the old room they had stayed in, whether it made sense or not, she didn't care. She didn't bother walking up to the desk to check if it was available, she would just walk in and out, a short tour, and then she would see where she would go afterwards. The door to the shiny gold elevator chimed to announce it's return and opened with a rolling sound. She entered the splendid, spacious room, her attention distracted for a moment by her many gold-toned reflections as the doors closed soon after. Soft music barely whispered in the cool elevator as she ascended. She was curious if anyone had bought the room, it wouldn't matter either way, but she would definatly prefer if it were empty. It wouldn't be hard to brake the lock, however. But she was curious what someone would do if they saw her walking in to inspect the interior.

It was a long climb to the top, she was happy noone had stopped it on it's way up. When the doors slid open, the first thing she could see was her and the twins walking down the serene hall, all the way to the end, which still sported the same table with the roses. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes tightly to rid herself of the vision and exited just as the doors began to close. The hallway was exactly the same, the cold, formal touch of an aristocrat. Yossi could imagine a couple ladies with large, elaborate dresses gliding towards her as she walked stiffly down to the hall. The silver doorknobs were as tempting as they had been before. There was such a stillness in the air, she simply wanted to look into each room to see if everyone was asleep and she was the only one awake and alive. She stopped, her hand reached for one of the door knobs, only halfway to her real destination. But before her fingers could brush the cool metal, the sound of a door opening broke her mesmerazation.

Yossi knew exactly which door had opened before she turned to gaze down the hall. Her face was a forelorn mask of pain and apathy. The strange mixture took away any implications that she was fragile any longer. The years had turned her hard and cold, but the one thing that broke her wall was the disappearence of two beings, and now they stood, waiting for her down the hall before their room. She stood still as a statue, taking them in silently. But she took a step back, and another, and then turned and ran back the way she came. Her life had been pleasantly complicated with the twins, but with Philo still alive, that complication would take a turn and her life would become callous. Philo would have to die before she could take the twins back into her life. She didn't bother trying to comprehend all of Philo's lies, the only thing her mind was circling around was where they had been on that fateful morning. A plain white door with an off-white handle was the first room that led to the roof. She ran all the way there with the twins close behind. It hadn't taken long for them to catch up. Yossi was still tired and underfed from being the hostage of Philo. She tore the door open and slammed it behind her, but before the sound of the door banging closed could satisfy her, one of the twins grabbed it and raced up after Yossi. The staircase spiraled upwards, and taking double steps was taxing Yossi greatly. She grabbed hold of the handrail and lept up the stairs as fast as she could like she was scaling a junglegym. Barely being able stay ahead, she was relieved when she finally made it to the rooftop door.

Before she could exit into the dim sunshine of a cloudy morning, however, she was tackled from behind by one of the twins. She bit her lip when she roughly hit the ground, drawing blood that ran down her chin and dripped to the cement. She wanted to curse, she even wanted to throw a tantrum, but she knew that wouldn't help, she'd have to fight them away. Her decision brought up a painful knot as bile climbed up her throat. She could feel the twin rising, and before he could restrain her, Yossi scrambled away and put distance between herself and the twins. She turned and took up a fighting stance. The twins watched her, confused, but mirrored her move. They took the offensive almost immediatly, sprinting towards Yossi who stood and waited for them. She rose her hands high above her and flipped back onto them, springing upright and landing the toe of her boot beneath a twins chin. He stumbled backwards, yet his brother swept a leg beneath Yossi's feet just as she was landing. She fell back onto her bottem and scrambled away as he reached for her. Neither of them had drawn their razors, but Yossi hadn't expected them to anyways. When she was back on her feet, the twin was aiming a punch to the side of her face, Yossi countered him by grabbing his wrist and ducking under his arm, but as she was doing so, his brother, who would have a spectacular bruise under his chin if he were human, grabbed her by her upper arm and tossed her away. She was just before the shadow made by the small square building of the stairwell. She slowly moved into a ready position as the twin she had countered turned to look at her and his brother rubbed his chin. She sprinted for them, planning to flip between them and get a good square kick at their backs, but as they moved towards her, they both began to move away from each other. She had to twist away from one's fist, but ended up a ready target for the other's knee. As he was bringing it up for her stomach, she put a foot atop it and lept high, backflipping into the shadow of the building. Just as she landed, one of the twins grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her into the cement wall of the stairwell. Their bodies were flush together, she squeezed her eyes tightly closed, thinking that their battle was over.

Her body was exhausted and sweat was pouring from her. She had overworked herself, and thus fainted as the twin pressed his lips against hers, drawing away with the bright red stain of her bloody lip, which he gingerly licked away.

---

After waking in terrible darkness and half-dead conditions for so long, Yossi believed for a moment that she was only dreaming. Her eyes blinked open to a blurry view of a pale blue ceiling, and as her vision cleared and her muddled thoughts straightened out, she recognized where she was. Yossi had gotten this far through sheer will alone, but she didn't feel like she could take another step without someone's help. Thick, feathery covers kept her body warm in the icy room. When she sat up, the whole world spun around Yossi's head like planets orbiting the sun. She pressed her palm against the side of her forehead and pulled the covers off of her. She was in new, clean clothes now, which didn't surprise her. When the spinning subsided, she slid off the bed and went on a hunt for food. When she didn't immediatly see the Twins, her stomach clenched tightly with worry. When the front door opened, she believed for one horrible second that Philo would walk through the door and the whole process would repeat itself.

Sporting a plastic bag with the label of the nearest Chinese restraunt, one of the twins greeted Yossi instead. He walked over and placed it on the counter, revealing a large Chinese meal. Her vision fogged again, but this time it was salty tears that were the culprit. She would have fallen to her knees and wept for several minutes if the smell of food hadn't kept her en route.

"You should rest for the day Yossi, we will have everything taken care of soon," he tried to reassure Yossi, who picked up a pair of chopsticks after opening one of the cartons. She stopped, her utensils poised over the box.

"What do you mean?" the beginning edge of panic tainted the tone of her voice.

The twin peered at Yossi curiously, not willing to answer her, and when he didn't, Yossi continued, putting her chopsticks down on the counter as her other hand squeezed the carton, "You don't need to take care of anything, just leave my business to me!"

"We do not believe this is just your business, in fact it is more of ours than yours," he spoke in a calm tone that was meant to qualm Yossi's nervousness, but didn't do anything of the sort. Instead, she fell quiet and took the small meal to the couch and curled into the corner to nurse her empty stomach. The twin followed her soon after, perched on the opposite end of the couch where he watched her eating silently. If she were younger she might have found his gaze bothersom and penetrating, but now she was simply happy to be on the receiving end. Before she could finish, he had slid over to her side, almost stealthily, so she was surprised when he plucked the chopsticks, which had been placing a large mushroom into Yossi's mouth, away and let them drop to the shiny, elegant black table with a little clatter. Yossi placed her carton of food down before he could steal it away as well.

Though she had still been hungry, the program knew exactly how to distract her. Goosebumps marched up her arms when her clothes were quickly pulled away, not only from the cold, but also her anticipation. She hadn't realized that she had been hungry for something else besides Chinese. His pallid hands smoothed away the anxiety and fear like a magician disappearing a tiger. Her frustrations disipitated like smoke till the only thing on her mind was the twin and where his hands were roaming. Before she fell off the ledge he was quietly coaxing her towards, she stopped him and stripped him of his clothing. He silently grinned as she fervently fumbled with his belt and when she triumphed, he quickly rewarded her by bending her back over the side of the couch and falling right in step where they had left off.

Before there was light at the end of the tunnel, however, Yossi felt that he slowed considerably. Unhappy with his teasing at the moment, she peered down at his face, which before had been nestled between her breasts, which was now, still with his cheek on her chest, gazing with an unreadable expression at the entrant. Yossi, so absorbed with her lover, hadn't realized his brother had been observing for several minutes now. A sheepish expression conveyed mock hurt that he had been left out, though there was a certain tenseness around his eyebrows. Stripping off several articles of clothing, he joined them quickly.

---

Days went on in this manner. Yossi believed the twins were working her slowly away from the ebony depths of her prison-like depression. Whether they were succeeding or not, she wasn't completely sure. It wasn't like immediately after her orgasm that she went into her melancholy state, directly, without passing Go or collecting two hundred dollars. She enjoyed the glow and the presence of the programs, who were almost always beside her without being obtrusive. But that was the twins, they were almost invisible if one wasn't peering at them, it seemed. Time passed slowly, and inside Yossi's mind were millions of fluttering thoughts that worried her deeply. Every morning she awoke with a stomach filled with knots and an aching head. When she opened her eyes, an image of Philo rushed across her vision till it was poised right in front of her. She shrieked one morning, awaking the twins on either side of her. One jumped up, and after a quick look about the room, he put his hands upon her shoulders and silenced her with a deep kiss. She put her hands upon his cheeks and welcomed him entirely.

Two weeks passed ever so slowly. But her anxiety wasn't going to leave her quietly, she soon realized. Philo would have to disappear by her hands only. If one day the twins returned with news of her death, then Yossi would never be at ease. She wanted her hands coated with the rebels blood, she wanted her fingernails stained for a week, so she would know exactly what had happened and she could relive her triumphant moment again and again. If that was what was going to happen, then she couldn't wait any longer. Although her days were sugar coated and rose tinted, she could not live like this forever. Awaking with a sense of dread wasn't the best way to start ones morning.

And so it was decided, she took what little possessions she needed, her coat and single strapped bag that held a few extra guns while her favorite was in it's holster under her arm, and left. Of course it was under the pretense of leaving to restock the refrigerator, and she had hidden the things she took in the closet nearest the door to keep from arousing suspicion. However, she was surprised at how easily the escape really was, and it left her feeling a little bereft. On some level, she believed that the twins were able to read her mind like they did each others. Shouldn't one of them had picked up on her plotting? The ride down the old familiar elevator was cold and lonely. Her eyes were unfocused as memories arose with an almost painful sensation. Squinting till star bursts erupted behind her eyelids, she stayed like that till the tinkling chime notified her of her arrival to the ground floor.

Half expecting to be stopped by the twins, she exited carefully, feeling foolish when she realized no one was there. Her pace quickened as she walked towards the ornamental entrance way, it was difficult to keep herself from sprinting out and dashing down the sidewalk. She had no plan of action, it would be much more important to take her time, however. The glass doors slid open, allowing her to exit along with a small group tourists who seemed to be ready for a day of sidewalk shopping. Yossi decided then to follow them till she'd made herself a plan. Heaving a sigh, she stayed near the small family as they traversed the shopping district.

The group she was following were grandparents, parents, and a single child who could be no more than seven years old. They looked to be comfortably situated as an upper class family, and Yossi realized this when the grandfather of the family handed over an easy five hundred dollars for two shirts at the first store they visited. All of her clothing, Yossi realized, looked to have come from a similiar shop, but actually were acquired from the closets opened by the twins special key. Yossi's first birthday with the twins took her to the mall, ending with the death of Lute, however that was the only time she had ever walked into a mall with the twins, or even by herself as a matter of fact. All of her clothing needs were met lavishly, as were all of the material items she requested. At first the twins lacked when it came to her social needs, Yossi only managed a few glimpses of life beyond the twins when she was allowed to buy a couple of drinks at a coffee house in the middle of the night. Though she had enjoyed herself immensely on those occassions, the twins had taken up most of her time afterwards and she never felt inclined to leave again.

Two hours passed as Yossi carefully wandered about with the family ever in sight. They spoke a different language except when paying for the expensive items, where the grandfather used eloquent, respectful greetings. It must have been some European country, but Yossi didn't recognize it at all. She eventually gave them all names, but only really payed attention to the young girl, who she dubbed Evi. Evi, she believed, must be having a birthday. After another two hours, everybody was laddened with bags, at least half were for the girl. Something tugged at Yossi's insides, absurdly, she wanted to get Evi a gift. She wanted to help them with their bags and hold the girls hand. She was all alone on her birthday, not a friend in sight. Everyone must be in their home country, thousands of miles away.

The family was leaving the largest store they had entered yet, the districts finest toy shop that had an area for adults as well. Here is where they purchased the largest stuffed leopard Yossi had ever seen. Evi could easily curl up in its soft furry arms, with the head of the animal held alert above her. Yossi had no money, she couldn't purchase the small purple lion she had picked up as she wandered the aisles, keeping Evi and her family in sight. When they walked through the doors, Yossi, with much difficulty, left the lion on a decorative stand and followed a few seconds behind with one last caress of its feathery mane.

They were wandering streets and sidewalks that Yossi had only glimpsed from the back seat of a car with the twins. She knew where they were, but it was strange being alone. The sun had set far enough that the skyscrapers blocked out most of the light, leaving the city in an early twilight. Instead of planning out a course of action to deal with Philo, she only worried about when Evi's family would have to go home. She hadn't given her real problem a single thought the whole day. She hadn't even pondered about where she would sleep that night, or if she should go straight for Philo. She didn't think it would be hard to find the rebel, she was probably out looking for her anyways, which surprised her that she had been out the whole day and hadn't even run into an Agent. Was she still marked for deletion? The agents knew who she was, but she didn't want to think about it. Instead, she was leaning against the building as Evi's grandfather hailed a cab. The small girl peered over her shoulder as she climbed in after her mother, gazing into the face of their follower. Yossi's heart stopped, she hadn't been as invisible as she thought she had.

---

Leaning amidst the shadows of a brick building, Yossi watched as the cab pulled away and made its way down the street. It was the end of their day, it seemed, and so Yossi was left alone. Another hour and the sun was a warm memory compared to the cool night that settled over the city. The afterhours wanderers were in force, and the brightest areas of the districts were also the most busiest, leaving Yossi to the more unpopular places. However she wasn't left to wandering for long. As casually as if they had been there the whole time, the twins walked up on either side of her as she strolled down the street. Yossi wasn't completely unsuspecting, and not surprised at all with the old company. They walked in silence for a short while before Yossi worked up what she needed to say.

"I wouldn't mind your help, but you must leave Philo to me. She is the only person in this world whose blood on I want on my hands," she couldn't keep the spite out of her voice with her last comment. If it was anybody else besides the twins listening to her, she imagined she would have heard an admonistment for speaking of death so purposefully. But this was the twins, and anything other than companiable, understanding silence would have been surprising. She allowed the twins to steer her back to the hotel, feeling accomplished if a little immature for running away for the day. Before they had made it to the street that housed the hotel, the trio stopped with a small crowd to await the stoplight to allow their passage. One of the twins pulled his hands out of his pockets, and the purposeful movement caught Yossi's eye.

The small purple lion from the giant toy store emerged from the depths and Yossi's eyes widened in utter surprise. She grinned, peering up at the twin who wore a mischevious expression. His brother wore a simliar look, though his gaze had wandered down the street. She hugged the stuffed lion to her chest, the warm memory of Evi and her family returned, wisking away the old familiar worries of her plans for Philo. She sighed as exhaustion settled in unexpectedly and suddenly, as if the lion itself reminded her of her phsyical body after spending the day lost in her thoughts. She was pleased, though, that the hotel wasn't far. For the duration of the short walk there, she kept the stuffed animal pressed reassuringly to her chest as she traversed the sidewalk between the twins. She was once again invisible in the mass of bodies, and she realized that on her own, she could feel the eyes of the population, unlike when in the company of the programs. It wasn't as surprising a revelation as she thought it should have been.

---

The hotel, in it's brilliant splendor, was a puzzling building. Her first night with the twins, and the eventful departure were some of her most vivid memories. However, there must have been something special about the structure itself. Yossi had questioned the twins several times about why they hadn't been skipping from place to place like they had before. Their nomadic status had left them permanently, it seemed. Yossi allowed her imagination to carry away as she thought up the reason behind this. Not many things surprised her about the Matrix anymore, so she first believed that the building was simliar to a firewall, it stopped the agents and rebels from seeing inside it's concrete walls at the occupants. The only reason they had left the slendid hotel was because of her prodding around in the computers before due time, and afterwards the chance never arose to return with everyone so close to their tails. This seemed a sufficiant enough reason. They stood awaiting the gold plated elevator to descend by the time she had worked out her theories about the hotel. A drowsy haze was consuming her mind, however, and she couldn't think coherently by the time the elevator chimed and slid open its doors.

Yossi swayed in the middle, the disorienting sensation of the elevators ascension had her dizzy, and with her mind already fuzzy, she put out a hand to grab one of the programs silver coat arms for support. It had been a while since she had exerted herself like today. She hadn't ate a single morsel of food, only watched from a distance as Evi's family tucked in at a cafe. Her stomach grumbled loudly at the thought of food and its lack thereof. Another dizzying sensation and Yossi peered about with half opened eyes to find herself in the arms of a stoic program. She could only imagine that she had tested their patience quite a bit today. They came to find that she had disappeared again, maybe they thought that Philo had swooped down and grabbed her up like hawk preying upon its dinner. Her mind released her unto sleep with this thought still circling her head, creating strange dreams before they had even exited the elevator.

---

Her exhausted body rested till well into the afternoon the next day. However, she didn't wake into an idle peace. Instead, she peered down her body, mostly nude with one of the twins kneeling between her thighs. She blinked several times, rather confused at how her body was reacting for a moment, then arched her back as a wave of pleasure washed over her. Wide awake now, she sat up as the program did the same, licking his lips rather suggestively. Yossi took a moment to catch her breath as the other twin walked through the large opening into the room. His expression was serene, very different from his brother, who seemed to be quietly promising a day of extrenuous activities. They seemed to be waiting for her to say something, and when all she really wanted to do was devour a carton of rice and kimchi, she could only provide a small grin just before yawning extravagently. The twin perched still between her knees, crawled foreward and nestled his head into the crook of her neck, nibbling for a moment before pulling away. Yossi's eyes had closed, and when she peered over to the place the other twin had been standing, she saw that he had gone.

"We are going to get you lunch," his brother said as he rolled over onto the part of the bed that was still made. He only wore his pants and partially buttoned shirt, Yossi noted, as she laid back, not bothering to cover herself. Rolling onto her stomach, she peered for a moment at the profile of the program, who peered up at the high ceiling.

"The rebels, I never told you, they wanted me to hack the Matrix for them, just like you had wanted for yourselves," Yossi said emotionlessly, half expecting his answer.

"We know."

"Do you still want me to do that for you guys?" she sat up as she spoke, resting her head on her hands and biting back another yawn.

"We do," he then turned to peer at her as Yossi crawled closer then climbed over to straddle him. She could tell quickly that he was ready to fulfill those promises he seemed to have made earlier.

"And when will that be again?" she said as she idly ran her hands under his loose shirt.

"One more year," the twin rolled his hips, barely lifting Yossi upwards for a moment.

And who was she to keep this beautiful creature waiting?

---

Despite those minor moments in the length of her day, Yossi spent the rest of the time submerged in worry and fear. She would lay sprawled and nude on the bed, couch or floor, depending on where their activities had led them(including one instance in the bathtub), deep in thought until one of the twins returned to start over again. Though she still hated herself for believing Philo's terrible lies, she tried not to think of that time and more towards her plans for the near future. It was sort of like what any other person would be doing at her age, only other people didn't invovle death or murder. She was concerned about hacking the Matix as well, she'd been away from computers for so long now, although she wasn't worried about losing her talents, she was definitly a little rusty. Yossi didn't need to voice her fears, she caught the notion that the twins were well aware already. Not sure about when she started to notice this phenomenon, the fact startled her somewhat when she mused upon it. Truly it was just another item on her list of things to think about, her brain was so muddled by the evening, not to mention her physical exhaustion, that she passed out before nine p.m under the watchful eyes of the twins.

She was anxious to get the waiting over with, and for the next week it was very obvious. Yossi was close to wearing a path into the plush carpet with her incessant pacing. Though it wasn't for lack of anything better to do, she used her time for formulating. It was important for her impending plan to be detailed down to the very specs of dust her boots might crush, and not only that, but creative as well. This would be a moment in her lifetime that, if she lived, she wanted to be proud of. But it wouldn't be a story she could pass on to any sort of toddler. She required gore and pain to be in abdundance. However, as she was creating these plans, she caught one of the brothers peering at her curiously. It was the end of the week and dark circles had shadowed her eyes. She hadn't paid much attention at all to either of the programs, though she honestly didn't believe that would worry them one bit. Even though it was true, completely and utterly, it put a damper on her crafty planning.

"I think I'm going a little crazy, being stuck in this building," Yossi had halted in the middle of her track and slowly made her to way the couch, slouching onto one end while the twin that had been watching her was poised at the other. The room itself was full of memories from her first stay within it's walls. Even though it was only a short while, it was still most important to her, not only was a fortress, but almost a home as well.

"We all lose ourselves in the end."

Yossi blinked in curious wonder at his cryptic statement. Even though he had said 'we', it was obvious he wasn't only talking about him and his brother. Whether or not Yossi could understand it, what he had said was a comment upon evolution, which would take Yossi still some time to figure out. However, even though Yossi couldn't undertand the idea from the machines point of view, she did recognize what it meant for herself. Her thoughts were clouded by memories, yet again, from her first stay in the hotel. The change was evident to say the least. Whereas before she only cared about her computers, now she was obsessed with the death of her adversary. She wasn't sure how she felt about her change, it held both good and bad traits.

She couldn't tell exactly how the twins had changed, besides the nature of their interest in herself. She doubted that counted anyways, everything else seemed exactly as it had been. Such a strange comment left her at a loss for words, in thought, she idly scratched at the back of her head lightly. Without a reply, she quickly changed the subject.

"Yes, well..when will we be getting a computer? I'm going to need one soon to get back into practice. I'm sure so much has happened in my absense, it's worrying me," pulling her legs up onto the couch, she slid over till she could lay down on the plush cushions, her legs left to dangle over the side. Her head came to barely touch the twin's thigh. He looked down at her, completely emotionless. Yossi had none them long enough to not find their expression's intimdating any longer, if fact, she was no longer surprised that she was aroused by it either.

In the dim light of the den, he appeared even more ghostly than when they phased. Yossi had the dim understanding that his brother was out stalking the sidewalks or allyways, just like in the old days, ever alert to enemy movements. Either that, or he was looking for Yossi's computers. Her heart jumped at the thought that they could find her lost long loves, her original computers. It didn't seem possible, it had been so long, she imagined they must have been sold by now. The thought of all that work she had put into them made her heart sink, the nostaligia was rather depressing.

"We have looked for your computers, we think we have found one, but there are others, perhaps better ones," Yossi blinked as a red flush crept over her cheeks. 'Better'? There were no better computers out there!

But then again, in all these years, they must have fallen behind. Yossi groaned loudly and turned onto her side, facing the back of the couch. If her computers were out of date, then she was as well.

"You have more important things to worry about," Yossi felt his hand upon her head, rubbing against her tangled hair and grabbed a handful. Yossi shivered involuntarily as she closed her eyes His fingers worked through a couple knots rather halfheartedly. He paused however, and Yossi knew that his brother was about to walk through the door.

And as expected, the door opened and closed silently. There was the sound of the crush of the carpet under his boots, and he finally came into view. He looked different, a little worse for wear, it seemed.

"Philo-", Yossi was sitting up before he could finish the name, "has rebels out on the streets." There was that tense strain around his eyebrows again. Yossi had seen that before, not long ago.

---

End note/ Only one more chapter I think :3


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